Internships for next summer...

So you guys...

I've been talking to friends from CMU and home and lots of people have had lots of trouble finding a job or internship (I lucked out!)

Not only does the economy suck, but its also hard to know where and how to apply!
And it's always hard without connections.

So I made this nifty internship spreadsheet. I'm adding all the internship opportunities I know of in this area so if some of you guys want to come visit me next summer and work here, you'd know where to apply :D

And of course, if you happen to know of some internships in your area (but you don't want to stay in your area, or the company doesn't want someone of your major, etc), you should add it to the list so other people can apply!

It automatically color codes it, so just write what major, etc. Follow the example.
If it doesn't color code it immediately, don't worry about it: I'll check it later.
And you can still sort by major

Also!

Keep this between just us and your close friends. We don't want EVERYONE applying to the same places because then no one will get anything! :)

I know it's super early to think of this kind of stuff, but just keep it in your Google docs and look at it later !

The Formula

You know, whenever I'm home, I almost always feel like an underachiever.

My ex-boyfriend is travelling the globe to compete in canoing competitions. He just got back from Vancouver. He's pursuing an Aeoronautical engineering degree at UC San Diego.

My best friend is currently coordinating and directing her own summer camp to teach kids the value of creativity. She is attending Stanford (major undecided)

My close friend is making a series of fashion music videos and is designing her own fashion collection to show at three shows in the Bay Area next year. She is pursuing a chemical engineering degree at UC Berkeley.

My art friend is making two 5-minute animations: one completely drawn by hand, the other completely done in Maya (3D models) in preparation for when he applies to work PIXAR in a few years. He is incorporating self composed music and voice acting. He goes to SAIC.

I've always wanted to be different and explore my abilities and the world.
I want to do something daring, and out of the ordinary. But at this point, I'm just plain...I'm in the school band, I play video games, I do martial arts, I play badminton, I have an internship... I do everything that is ordinary and organized. And I've always felt like a reason for that is I was always told I should be organized and businesslike to be a success, but the older I get the more real it becomes to me that that isn't the only way to success.

I saw a movie last night called "Acceptance" about how everyone is stuck in the "birth, school, college, job, kids, retire" formula.

Does anyone else feel like their skills are being contained because of this need for our society to follow that mold?

So my main question to you is:

If your parents were cool with whatever you did, and you could do anything with your life, what would you do and why? And if you couldn't think of anything, do you think it's because you have been brainwashed or do you really support this formulaic way to life?

I personally would join Drum and Bugle Corps International.
I'd make my own fashion and mask line and make my own website to promote it.
I'd start my own ska band and compose music, and maybe even try to become a pop star in LA.
I'd travel around the world for inspiration and just to see and soak in all the other cultures in the world.
I'd also move to San Francisco or New York City, or even Berlin!
And of course...
I'd make Jeremy Chen (MVHS) and Madeleine Robson (CMU) design a house modeled after buildings seen in Zelda and continue to collect random Zelda trinkets :D

Maybe I can just be one of those Silicon Valley stars that makes tons of money before they are 35 and then retire early and do most of those things :) There's still hope!

Length of Days

Has everyone ever wondered why days seem so much longer when you're a kid and so much shorter as an adult?

Do you think it's because as a child, you've only lived a limited number of days so each day is a larger percent of your overall life (A 5 year old child has lived 1825 days, so a day is 1/1825, while an 18 year old college student has lived 6570 days, so a day is 1/6570 a much smaller percentage) and thus it feels shorter?

Or maybe because as a child, you are easily excitable and look forward to so many small little things because you're present hedonistic (i.e. you look forward to ice cream tonight, playdate tomorrow morning, going to the park tomorrow afternoon), and as we know, if you watch the clock for class to end the clock seems to go 1/100th the speed it was going when you're not watching it. As an adult, you look forward to bigger achievements (i.e. graduating high school, concert in a month, finals in a few weeks, bigger events) so we aren't constantly watching the clock so time seems to go faster.

Similarly as children we consciously want time to go faster while as an adult you don't want it to. As a kid you WANT to grow up, you WANT to be big so you can go on the big rides at the amusement park, etc while as an adult you DON'T want to get wrinkles and you DON'T want to make that presentation for work tomorrow (so you don't look at the clock). And using the same principle as above, when you're consciously looking at the clock, time goes slower (because you aren't distracted enough?)

What are your thoughts on the matter?

UPDATE: I actually found this : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122322542
?

I believe...

...that every pool table in CMU's University Center should be adorned with this



...and that my first car should look like this:

I need to be less interested in things

My TODO List for summer (at least what remains...):

Projects
Finish painting I started last summer
Start/Finish a Zelda flash movie
Start a DnD online application
Finish scrapbook I started last summer
Compose a ska song based on a classic
Make the umbreon costume for next year's Fanime
Make the Zelda costume for when I go pick up Skyward Sword
Silk screening!

Video Game wise
Beat Majora's Mask
Play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Play Soul Calibur III
Beat Twilight Princess again
Beat Spirit Tracks
Get to level 55 in Age of Conan

Social events
Go to San Francisco once
Go to San Francisco twice
Go to Bintang with Baddy team
Go to Band Camp
Teach Steven how to play saxophone
Hang out with Abha at least 3 times
Hang out with Aditya at least once
Hang out with Tim at least once
Hang out with Colin, Karen, Jeremy and Tim at least once all together

Other
Get to 7th kyu in Aikido
Buy a bokken
Learn Groovy on Grails
Learn JavaScript and be awesome at it
Read "March Violets"
Spend more time with the Family
Watch Toy Story 3
Watch Inception

does anyone else think I'm screwed?

Nidan Test

WAS EPIC!!!!

It was pretty long and ridiculous.
They test more on your teaching ability than actual ability I feel, they'd ask questions like "what angle should your feet be at after the second pivot of ____ technique?"

The name was in Japanese. How hard is that?

Then they'd ask "how would you fall if ste did ____ to you?"

Kareem-san studied for this 2nd degree blackbelt test for 10 years, and for the last year woke up at 6am every day except for Saturday and drove for 40 minutes to the dojo to practice.

I hope he passes!

Weeks late

Yeah, I know...it's been a few weeks, but I've been really busy (I swear!)

Major events since the last time I posted:

Work
- I got my first paycheck after 1.5 weeks of work... $1200 baby!
- I have no freaking clue what I'm doing at work anymore. Everything from now on I have to write in Groovy and Grails, two languages I'm fairly unfamiliar with.
- I have a coworker who is 19 years older than me and hits on me. Oh also, I was told I have to inform you guys he's single. So if you're interested...

Fanime
- I went to Fanime! I didn't take any pictures, but my friends did, so here are some from the private Facebook album.






- At Fanime, I got humped by some huge Soul Calibur fan...and I couldn't escape. It was very awkward.
- Also Melissa, Leslie and I participated in a game show in which we tried to dance and sing to Bad Romance. Crawling on the floor like Lady Gaga is a lot harder than it looks. It should be on Facebook soon.

Friends
- I've been having my dinner dates. Most with people who used to have crushes on me...the last one was pretty awkward. A really touchy-feely guy who kept trying to get me to sit on his lap, but he's the guy you can't NOT like because he's so outgoing. I missed him nonetheless while I was at CMU.
- Mountain View High School graduation was yesterday. I saw so many of my friends there! People who are two years ahead of me, people one year ahead, tons of people for my grade and of course, the grads and their friends years below. It was like A GIANT PARTY!!! I ended up talking to my old alto section leader for quite awhile. I also talked to a guy I used to have a crush on for...a couple years. And I was supposed to help my other friend build a grave for himself becauseeee
- he's making a short film as a portfolio piece for when he applies to work at Pixar! We already agreed I'm going to help him storyboard it and I'm going to be a voice actor hurray!

Activities
- I've been going back to Aikido three times per week hurray! Everyone remembered me and even the new people (who might be technically higher ranked than me now because they actually take the tests) really like me and train with me a lot. I've been told that I'm "confident, cool, and very talented!" by several people. I feel so skilled hehe
- I've been making videos again... if you haven't noticed :)
- My friend Alex coaxed me into spending $40 on another MMORPG...well on the expansion to the best one (in my opinion) that we played together. And yet I haven't played it really since I spent that money. Fuck you Alex.
- I've been drawing again, but the graphite irritates my fingers. Bitch.

On another note...

I FINALLY GOT A DIGITAL CAMERA!

14 megapixels
720p HD video
5x optical zoom
panoramic picture (can only do up to 3 pictures long though)
smile detection (not even face any more)

comes with case and 4GB sandisk

all for $100

I LOVE COSTCO!



That's about it folks. Tomorrow I'm checking out the blackbelt test at my dojo! I'M SO EXCITED! I'll take pics :)