Summer Fun

This particular email today comes from sunny Northern California, where I've been living and working for the summer. I can't remember if I sent an email out explaining who I worked for, but it's Google, if you didn't already know. It's hard to believe that half of my summer is already gone. It seems as though I just started last week.

To start out this edition, I'll go a bit into what I work on. I can't give much information about it, but I'm working on Google Docs, an online application similar to Word that I would suggest for all. It has some draw backs when compared to Word, but it also has some advantages over the Microsoft version. I myself work on some of the front end things, such as the look and feel, as well as the features that are available to the users. I absolutely love my work, as well as where I work. It's pretty much like college, except you get to work on whatever you want, as long as it fits the general motto of Google.

On a real fast second note, I'm just going to give a quick apology regarding the language of this edition. I've been reading a lot more, recently, and the book that I'm currently working through has a different tone then most. It seems that that tone has seeped into my brain, however, and I'm doomed to write in it. (See why I'm apologizing? It's horrible!) Abby and I have been reading a lot, as we always do in the summer, and have a new list of recommendations for you all.

• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - An interesting read, recommended by Mr. Hamiltion a few years back. It's an easy read, based in New Orleans, and stars a character that you almost always want to smack. I'd recommend this book mostly to those of you who want something of a different pace, and don't have anything else to read.
• M.A.S.H. by Richard Hooker - This is the book that the movie and TV show are based on, and you can tell by the end of it. While the characters and story line are slightly different, the overall book is very similar. By the end of the piece I felt as if I had been watching M.A.S.H. all weekend, and I wanted to watch more.
• Lullaby by Chuck Palahiniuk - Another disturbing book by Chuck, this time focusing on the mass consumption of materials and how we're destroying our planet. If you like Chuck's other works, you'll like this one as well. It's a quick and, as I said before, disturbing read that I'd only recommend to those of you who enjoy horror stories and books like The Things They Carried (a classic).
• The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer - My favorite thus far this summer, this autobiography is a true piece of work. The book describes J.R.'s youth and his travel into adulthood, how he quested to find a substitute for his father and how he found it in the local pub. A good book about discovering yourself, I recommend this piece to anyone who's struggling with where they want their live to go, or who feel somehow cheated by their situation in life and youth.

Enough on books, though. I bet you're all curious as to what I do while I'm not working or reading. Well, until last weekend, my friends and I would take the train on Saturday up to San Francisco and distribute Free Hugs, a world-wide campaign to spread happiness. I wish I had more pictures of the hugging, but it was actually too much fun to stop and take more. We had people stopping at red lights and jumping out of their cars to hug us. Everyone we passed, even if they didn't get a hug, walked on with a smile. For those of you who wish to do something similar to this, just make a sign with cardboard and go to it, just watch out for private property. We were told by the police last Saturday that we weren't allowed to give out Free Hugs on the private property of the city and that we would be arrested if we tried to continue. Needless to say, that stopped the hugs.

The fellows in the pictures are my buddies, Cesar and Tim. Tim (above) lives in Santa Barbara and came up a few weekends to give out free hugs and just generally hang out. Cesar (right) is actually a friend of a friend of mine, Tim (another Tim who lives in Colorado), who has become a very good friend this summer. He lives just down the road from me and we often go out to movies, dinner, or just hang out in general. He's kind enough to drive me any place my bike can't take me, and he's helped me a lot with learning the new technology I need to use for work.

My bike is almost as important to me as Cesar and Tim are, at the moment. My primary mode of transportation, I bought the bike from WalMart on my first day here. Truly a WalMart bike, I've now pumped about an addition $100 into her so that I can keep riding her to work and around town. That's one of the nice things about this area, it's perfect for biking. Mostly flat, tons of bike lanes, always sunny, and everything's within riding distance. As soon as I finish this post, in fact, I will be riding the 2 miles down to the WalMart to buy Miss Abby some kitty litter. I live about three miles from work, so getting to and from is just as easy with my bike. To aid with the summer heat and riding constantly, I've also cut off most of my hair. My long locks are now down to shoulder length and I couldn't be happier. Sometimes I even wish it was shorter. I plan on mailing the hair (yes, I still have it) to Locks of Love, where they'll turn it into a wig for a child with cancer. If any of you have the ability to grow your hair out, I ask that you do so and donate as well. The hair that you donate needs to be at least 10 inches long, so plan accordingly. Also, a lot of hair salons will cut and style your hair for free when you go to donate, as well as mail the hair out for you.

Hmm... what else to talk about... Well, I guess this is where I'll get random. I have some pictures, so I guess I'll just tell about them. This first one is at the Google Developer's Day party that was thrown after the conference. For the event, Google had tens of arcade machines brought in and setup for free play, as well as about 15 pool tables. Outside on the patio they had free drinks and carnival food (cotton candy, hot dogs, tacos, ice cream, fries, etc.) and all of the tables were whiteboards (something that you can always find at Google) which people doodled on while they ate and mingled. The glasses used that night were glow in the dark cups with the Google logo, glowing in the four main Google colors. Cesar and I each got a complete set of these glasses and they're currently in my freezer waiting for an event to use them with. After the party, Cesar and I went on an excursion into the main buildings of Google and discovered the ball pit, someplace I will surely have to return to and work from. We also discovered some of the other microkitchens and surveyed the food offerings that they provided. For those of you who don't know, within 150 feet of anywhere within a Google building, you will find healthy food for the hungry works. Most of the food offerings are organic and bought from local vendors instead of the major corporations like Lays chips and such. There are also usually some sort of entertainment near the kitchens, including pinball machines, pool tables and Foosball. The Googleplex also has a gym, lap pools, volley ball court, and 14 different cafes, each with their own theme and unique menus.

While Google is a fun company to work at, there's also serious busy going on. You can tell this from the quality of my work notebook. See? I actually doodled that while struggling though a tough programming problem. Working at Google has really stretched my skills and forced me to learn some new computer languages that I had been putting off. I enjoy the struggle and wonder if I'll be able to pull myself out of the mindset that Google has put me in and step back to the one that college provides. While I don't miss the course work of CSU, I do miss the atmosphere and my friends, along with the more laid-back attitude. Don't get me wrong, Google's laid back compared to most companies, but they're still a company and work still has to get done. On the bright side, I should be able to refer you all to a link in a week or so to see some of the work that I've done.

Wow, this email is huge and I feel like I've just been putting off going to WalMart and working on another scholarship application. I'm trying to get a scholarship to a conference for women in Computer Science in Orlando this October, as well as one to a conference regarding my gaming research in North Carolina in August. We'll see what develops.

Alrighty, hopefully I'll be sending you another email soon.

Peace, Love, and Free Google t-shirts,
Tar

P.S. - George and Vassie came out and visited me last weekend and took a few pictures of me and a Google sign. I bet if we bugged them enough, they're reply-all the pictures.

Day Late? Dollar Short?

Not sure if this is technically a day late.. but I figure it is. Um.. I know that a few of you were having issues with viewing the posts in this way, but let me know if you're having troubles now, considering the first time I sent you the wrong address.

I know I promised pictures from a lot of things but I haven't seen Tom to get his, or Don to get his from skiing. The only pictures I have right now are from my cell phone, taken of the campus with all the snow. So yeah, here's that pic:



It's been a while since it snowed and my camera isn't the best.. but yeah. Last week was a bit crazy (what else is new, right?) and the next two should be just as much. I have three more assignments to complete this week and then I'm done for the semester. Just have to, you know, take all my finals. I've got my first final at 7am Monday morning. Whee. My other four are divided between Thursday and Friday mornings. Then, after finals, I get to go home to the Condo and veg on my couch for about two weeks, doing nothing in particular. Oh, and Christmas shop.

What are everyone's plans for Christmas? Anyone traveling anywhere exciting? I wanted to go to Dubai for my break but we could never work the dates out. My unfailing ability to get sick for the first week of any break I have severely limited when I could go.

I'm going to be honest with you guys, I'm runnin out of ideas here on what to write about.. um... I'm sitting in the College of Business at the moment, waiting for my last class of the day, then I gotta go grab Cait. I think today I'm going to challenge her to some sort of game, whether it be Mille Bournes or a video game... I took her sledding last week, after the big snow storm. I was hesitant at first but we both had a blast and froze our bums off. It took a while for the sledding to get good because we had to pack the snow down on our path, but once we did, we were flying. It got to the point where we were almost sliding into the lake that was at the bottom of the hill. I would have taken pictures of the fun with my phone, which I had only brought for emergencies.. but I dropped it in the snow and it froze, literally. I hadn't wanted to bring my camera because I was afraid I'd land on it. I had to pull her the last block home on the sleds (we had walked there) and then I made us hot chocolate with milk and real chocolate, not that powder junk.

Anyway, class is supposed to start soon and I need to get to work on finishing my java lab.. so yeah. Until next weekend (hopefully weekend).

Peace, Love and naps in class,
Tar

Later, But At Least I Did It

So I guess the first thing to say would be that I’m sorry it’s been so long. Several of you have emailed me and I’ve replied to a few of you that I would be sending something out soon.. but that soon has yet to come, until now. I would like to promise you all that I’ll be more consistent with my emails, that I won’t forget to write them, that I will have time for you.. but I can’t. What can I say? I’m human.. and a young one at that, haha. For all I can say right now is that this email’s going to be long.. and I’m going to try and send out another one next week, so take off your shoes, slouch a little in the chair and grab something to drink, cause this is going to take a while.

When we first left our adventurer, she was embarking on- wait a second.. I can’t even remember the last time I wrote one of these. And why am I calling myself an adventurer?.. Okay, ya know what, I’m just going to fill ya in as I remember stuff, okay? Coolies.

First thing I remember is that I’m a college student still. Yes, I haven’t dropped out and they haven’t decided I’m awesome enough to just hand me the degree (yet). I’m taking five courses this semester (which is almost over) and almost enjoying them all. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not enjoying my Computer Structure’s class. There are few in that class that are. Scratch that, none are. It’s essentially a class about the, you guessed it, structure of a computer. Like how electrical signals move through boards and flip little switches and make things happen.. we write programs in binary.. I seriously dislike that class. I take my laptop to it every lecture and play games or do other homework. It’s what the department calls a “pre-req” for another class.. it’s what we call a hoop. Other then that, though, I like all my other classes. I’m taking two history courses (zomg, I love them..), another computer course (not bad, tough but fun), and a business systems course (database design, whee). I’ve already enrolled for next semester. It was going to be all computer science courses, something that will drive me crazy.. so I have a history course scheduled in there too for the fun of it, though I may have to drop it because of the credit load, we’ll see. I’ll describe those courses later, like when I take them or something.

Oh! The other big news in the classes department is that they want me to help teach a course next semester. They designed a web development course around my research from last year and I’ve been helping them do it.. and they want me to help teach it. I was considering for a while using that as an excuse to get more independent study credit (I’m already getting some this semester for the work I did last summer), but I’d have to pay for the course’s tuition, and that’s just a waste of money. I’m really excited about the whole thing.. but slightly nervous. They’ve never done this before with an undergrad student and I think most of my students will actually be older then me. It’s kind of an ego boost.. but at the same time I’m freaking out a little, ya know? So yeah.. that’s that exciting news.

Hmm, let’s see.. I’m still doing research for the universities. I say ‘universities’ because I’m doing research with CSU and UNCC. My CSU research is a continuation of my research from last year, looking at website usability and navigation. My research with UNCC is also a continuation of my work there from the summer. I’m looking at playing video games at a college level and how game play effects the lives of students, as well as the type of students that are open to using a game in combination with lectures. A spin off of that is looking at the learning that happens during game play and how we might be able to capture that learning power and make it more university related. I’m extremely excited about my research.. like, insanely so. It’s just amazing what I’ve found from interviews with students. I could seriously write a paper on it all, oh wait, I am. It’s not gotten very far right now.. I’ve bitten off more then I can chew when it comes to all that I’m doing.. so I plan on working on that next semester. It seriously just amazes me the things that these games are doing.. and what people are doing for these games. I’ve talked about some of my findings to faculty at CSU and they’re excited about what conclusions I’ll make and how I can help them use those to improve the department. Haha.. I’ve been reminded a lot recently about one of the first things my friends heard me say.. *Flashback* We were walking to the Computer Science building to take a tour on our first day of college and I was talking to Fish and Donovan, who I had just met. Erin and Christy we walking behind us, chatting and listening to our conversation when I declared that my goal was to rule the world.. and that to succeed in doing so, I was going to take over the Computer Science department, then CSU, then the city, then the state, so on and so forth until the world was mine. We all laughed.. *End Flashback* but Erin’s starting to say she’s afraid it’s coming true. I can’t leave evidence of my plans behind.. so I’ll just say here a simple “Whahaha.”

(Okay, so I’m going to toss this out there right now that I’m writing this email on an airplane at.. um.. really high height, on my way home from a wonderful week at Vassie and George’s, or Nanny and Papaw, as we like to call them. I would just like to say that I enjoyed my stay so much and I can’t express how sorry I am that I got sick. Everyone there in Melbourne was awesome, and Betty, I’m sorry I never got a chance to come over and fix your computer. I called a few times, but I’m not good about leaving messages.. so it’s my fault, I’m sorry. Okay, yeah, that’s my two cents, back to the email.)

That totally blew my train of thought.. oh, right, work! I was going to talk about my work now. Okay, so I have three jobs at the moment (6 is you include my research and Halbyte.NET). I still work one night a week at Newsom Front Desk, I’m still a live-in Nanny, and I run the Publications Database for the CS department at CSU. The front desk thing is cake, nothing big to talk about there, and the publications thing is easy too. The live-in nanny gig.. well… okay. It’s just terrible. Awful. Just kidding. Heh. Chris and Vinna (the parents of Caitlin) get this email, so I had to kid a little bit. In all seriousness I love it. Caitlin’s great, the dogs are cool, and the old-farts are fun and not-so old. Personally I think that we’re all doing awesome and I couldn’t be happier. (Okay, that’s not true. Vinna, if you’re reading this, I’d be a lot happier with a king size water bed, big screen TV and a mini-fridge in my room. Oh, and can I have your and Chris’s room?) I’m beginning to see Caitlin more as the kid sister my mom never let me kidnap from another family, instead of the kiddo that I have to pick up from school. I had a tough time adjusting to the family life at first but I think I got the swing of things now. Honestly I feel that I’m not pulling my weight there.. it’s just, too easy. I mean, granted, I’m not saying have me do the dishes every night.. but the whole family there is just great. I feel right at home and I don’t have any problems with looting the fridge or asking for something. Sometimes I feel like I’m cheating them. I mean, here I am, an almost-20 (ahh!!) college student living in their basement, eating their food, using their internet, watching their TV and, oh yeah, occasionally playing with their awesome 8-year old. I mean.. half the time I’m the one that asks Caitlin to play. It’s just.. too good to be true. Watch, I’m going to get home and they’re going to ask me to start like.. waxing their cars or something. Darn my honesty. Darn it.

Anyway.. um.. what else is there?.. Oh! Right. I started a radio station. Don’t get too excited, it’s just an online radio station and like.. our average listener count right now is.. 40 or something, but yeah.. I was playing my game a few months ago and one of the guys I play with was broadcasting his music over the internet so we could listen to what he was (he kept typing the lyrics out, it was annoying cause we wanted to listen to Thriller too!) and I got this idea in my head to start an online radio station. So.. a few weeks later FirFM was born. Fir is the name of the guy that was broadcasting his stuff that day and I insisted that the station remain named after him. Another online friend of mine, named Michele, is helping Fir and I a lot with the station (she’s my other half on the net, honestly) and together we’re making a website for the station. It’s still under development (until I get more time), and once the site’s done, we’re going to do a major advertising launch and try to get our listener count up. We’re hoping to eventually get the station so popular that the advertising and donations will cover the server costs, but we’ll see.

Yawn yawn yawn. What’s next? Wanna know how the gang’s doing? Okay! Berlin, my old roommate, dropped out of college. Beth, Rachel and Tirrel live together still. Tirrel is big into bike racing right now and Beth and Rachel are just doing their thing. Fish and Bria are practically married now.. we just call them husband and wife anyway. I honestly don’t know much more then that about that part of the gang because I don’t see them often.. I hang out with Christy, Erin and Donovan more. Christy and Erin are fellow Computer Science students and together we’re earned the name of “The Trio” in the department. We’re the only girls in our class and we’re all making waves, so we’ve earned ourselves names individually and as a whole. Donovan you all love and remember. We’re back to being the inseparable duo again. He lives with two of his friends a black from campus and I’m well known for just camping on his couch between classes. We do lunch together on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on the weekends we’re usually hanging out. He cut his hair (no more white-fro!) and shaved, so he looks more human now, definitely. Um.. yeah.. not sure what else to say about Don except that he’s my best friend right now… We went skiing two weeks ago, I’ll make sure to include some pictures when I get them.

Perfect timing. We’re about to land and I can’t really think of anything else to write about right now. I mean, I could tell about my week in Florida.. but I don’t really remember it. I was a little out of it with the cold and all, so sorry. I’ll make sure to include some pictures next time and hopefully they’ll tell their own story. Let me know if you didn’t like this new website thingy and I’ll go back to emails. This is just a little easier for me.

Peace, Love and peanuts,
Tar

It's been awhile, sure. But I still love you.

I know. It's been almost a full month since my last email. I'm sorry. I've been kinda out there lately. This email has a lot of information to get out because of that, I know, but you can free feel to skim or skip or whatever you would like to do with this email.

First off the bat, how are you all doing? I hope that you're all in good health and happiness and enjoying life to its fullest. I know I'm trying to.

Secondly, I have changed email providers, and in doing so I lost my original list of people that receive this email. If you are receiving this email and don't want to, simply reply so. If you're sure that I'm missing someone from the list, please let me know and I'll add them.

Thirdly, I'm writing this email over the course of the next few hours when I have free time, so I'm sorry if I repeat or miss anything. This email will also be posted on the blog at http://tarincollege.blogspot.com All of the emails from this semester (and those from the summer) will be posted there.

Alright! So! Let's start at the end of the summer. It was awesome. My experience in North Carolina, while hectic, was a blast. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I learned a lot about what I like doing in the field of computer science and what I need to do to achieve my career goals. Geez, that sounds like something I wrote for a paper.. well, I might have, heh. I had to write a paper at the end of the summer over what I did. Now I know that most, if not all of you, won't be interested in that, but, if you are, you can find the paper, my presentations from the summer and my weekly blog posts at http://bebopdevelopment.com/Charlotte

After I flew back from Charlotte I had a few days in the Springs to catch up with family and friends before I drove back up to Fort Collins to watch Catlin for the weekend. We had a blast and we still are, just in case you were wondering. Her and I have worked out a little system that works for what we do when I'm supposed to be watching her. I don't really like to call it watching, though. At this point I see her more as a little sister then a.. um.. sitted-kid? I dunno how to phrase that but whatever, that's not how I see her anyway. I take her to school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then pick her up and hang out with her Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

But yeah.. I kinda just spent those two weeks working on websites for clients, getting my room together, getting everything ready for school and hanging out with the kiddo. Then school started and my world kinda exploded again. Ahh for the two weeks of my summer vacation..

I'm taking 20 credits this semester, but don't let that freak you out! 3 of those credits are actually just me earning credit for the work I did this summer in North Carolina, so techinquely I'm only taking 17 credits. I'm taking two history courses (yay!!), two computer science (Ugh..) and a business course (Database Systems Management.. think I really have to try?). My schedule isn't as nice as last semesters but I can't complain. I have enough time inbetween classes to do things like run home to see my kitty and send emails.

...

How many of you saw the kitty comment? Come on, be honest. Hehe. Yes, I got a kitten. I actually got her Thursday.. but yeah. She's very very lovable. I was having a very stressful week and I've been wanting a new pet for about a year now, as many of you know.. so.. I caved on Thursday and went down to the shelter to get her. I had been considering a new playstation or something like that.. but she's so much better. She's one of those kittens that loves to be around you.. she falls asleep curled up in my lap when I'm reading or working on the computer.. if she can't get my lap she'll curl up on my feet. Oh! And she purrs so nicely when I pet her. I sleep with her at night (she likes to sleep on me but she'll settle for the pillow) and I'm glad to say that she likes car rides. I had to take her to Colorado Springs with me this last weekend and she did awesome in the car! She just curls up and sleeps or watches the cars zoom by. Tirrel had her out of her carrier for a bit and she did fine then too. Just sat in her lap and watched traffic. Or me. Yeah.. she's very attached to me. And now, I bet you'd all like to see pictures. Now you know that I had to take a lot.. so I'll just send you the links instead of the pictures. I took most of these the first day I got her, but I have some that are from when we were driving.

http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0243.jpg - What's that?!
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0251.jpg - She discovered under my bed!
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0252.jpg - Look how tiny!
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0259.jpg - no, she didn't pounce after this photo.. oh!1 When she's ready to pouce, she doesn't shake her tail.. she shakes her whole butt!! It's so cuteeeeeee!
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0264.jpg - Okay, it's lame.. but I had to get one of me in there with her (and ignore the brace, it's nothing serious).
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/abby%20003.jpg - She's so tiny!!
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/abby%20010.jpg - This is her asleep on my center console with her head on my water bottle.
http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/abby%20016.jpg - Bailey, Tommy's puppy, doesn't believe in blinking.


I know.. I'm so in love with her. It's a bit sad, huh? That's okay.. Mom loves her too. She spoiled her this weekend. Bought her new toys and a carrier and blankie.. now we know how her grandchildren will be treated, at least. Heh.

Well... aside from the kitty, the gang and I have been hanging out again. I missed them so much.. I mean, yeah, my NC friends were awesome and we had a great time.. but my CSU friends are like my family! Here's the scoop on them: Beth, Rachel and Tirrel are all living together in a house about 2 blocks from campus with their new kitty. Fish (Robert) and Bria have a house about 4 blocks from campus and live with their 2 cats (do you see a theme developing?). Donovan lives with two of his other friends in an apartment about 2 blocks from campus and no, they don't have a cat. Everyone had an okay summer but we're all glad to be back. We (as in most of us) went to Alley Cat (Oh, how we missed thee) and took pictures. Here's our favorite picture from that: http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/thegang.jpg

On another topic, I'm flying out to LA in October to see Vassie and George ( I hope I can go) with my mom. It's a weird setup and I won't confuse you all with it, but yeah. For Thanksgiving I'm flying out to Florida to have my gord stuffed at the Thomas family dinner. My mouth is watering already. For Christmas I'm supposed to be going to Dubai for a few weeks (hello sun tan), we'll see what happens with my passport. My old one was expired so I had to send in for a new one (cause I was a child when I got the last one and blah blah), hopefully the new one will come in soon (Is Oct. 31st soon enough?). I'm not sure what I'm doing for Spring Break or the summer, but I know that I need to stay in the Colorado area this upcoming summer (it's going to be tough.. I love to travel). If you guys have ideas or what not, I'm dying for a roadtrip.

I think that I'm out of things to talk about.. I'm sure that I'm not.. oh! I remember! So there was this massive spider in my bathtub last week. Here's the link for the picture: http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0240.jpg and http://www.bebopdevelopment.com/Kitty/100_0241.jpg (yeah, you thought that it wouldn't make it this email.. but it did! It did!).

Also, Tom and Crystal set a date (April 28th) and I'm going to be a bride's maid, apparently. I like how I found that out from the Maid of Honor instead of my brother.. way to go Tom.

Last bit, I swear. Happy b-day to Tim, George, Tom and happy Aniversary to George and Vassie!! (Sorry if I missed you, let me know.)

This class is going to start soon but the real confusing thing is that I'm not sending this email until later tonight when I can get home and upload and scan pictures. Yeah, most those urls up there don't actually work when I'm writing this. But don't worry! They work now!

Love, Peace and may your weekend be like a summer.
Tar

Sorry

Sorry that it's been such a long time guys, I've been swamped to no end. The good news is I'm back in CO and I'm having a great time with Catlin. Classes start in a week and I'm already getting to spend time with the gang. Fish and Bria live near campus and have already started moving in. I'll probably end up helping them unpack more, like wise with Donovan and Beth & Rachel when they get here.

Just so I don't forget, two weeks ago I went to Boston for the weekend for a conference and got stranded in the Detriot airport. Me being the crazy person that I am couldn't sleep and ended up meeting a senator from Maryland, who gave me her card and asked me to email her. I did, haven't hearc back from her, but eh, it was a good 4 hours hanging out with her. There's more to the story and if you guys wanna hear it, just tell me.

Also, I'm changing over emails to tar3820@gmail.com, so please update your address books. Yahoo has been mean to me lately, so I'm slowly getting away from it.

I have a lot of pictures and I plan on posting on a website eventually (when I find the time), but for now you can go to http://bebopdevelopment.com/Charlotte and see what I did this summer. It'll be updated over the next week or so, so check back often.

Alright, it's late and I need to get up kind early tomorrow, so I'll talk to you all later.

Love, Peace and is it really only 12:30?!~
Tar

Swamped

So the Korean are leaving this week and we have presentations due today and all sorts of other stuff. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get an email out last weekend (I'm acutally writing this right now in a lecture.. shh..), but I did want you all to know that last weekend I had a blast at Ed & Gail's.

Here's some pictures from that I took from that weekend with the camera that Ed and Gail gave me. I'm only sending two and now I have to get back to working in the lecture, instead of sending emails.

This month's quiz: Which tree came first?

Gah! Sorry I'm late!
Tar

OMG, I'm So Sorry

I am so, so sorry. I know, there's no excuse for three weeks, I know. I meant to get one out every weekend, I did, but there was just no time. It's been a crazy few weeks, that's for sure.

To start it out, about three weeks ago when the building I was living in got hit by lightning. It was just the A/C unit, so don't worry. Anyway, it was the weekend and there were only a few of us still there for the weekend when it happened. They offered us all rooms in another building, one with A/C, and the four of us from this project jumped on the chance. We got an apartment together and all was well. Until I found out that the new apartment had unblocked Internet! So I could play my game! Long story short, two of the girls moved back into the old building when it was fixed, and I stayed in the new one with Evie, where I spend most my time playing my game. Or working.

For a tiny cute little story, while the four of us were living together, we got bored one night and decided to have a camp out. In our living room. So! Using 5 blankets, a coffee table, a kitchen table, and a few chairs(and a couch) we made a fort. We made s'mores over the oven burner and played Apples to Apples in our fort to candlelight. Pictures will be posted shortly.

That Thursday we had Chicken Rizzo, made by Lauren, and watched a creepy Japanese movie.

Um.. okay. I was going to do this one event at a time, in order, but I can't remember it all! I remember going to WalMart one night and buying classic cartoons (we're talking the good ol' Bugs Bunny), going to see Click (great movie), had meatloaf one night (awesome, btw. I'm gonna have to make it again.), went running, watched Resident Evil, and oh yeah, worked!

The direction of work has changed a bit. It used to be that we were making quest ideas for the game and then trying to figure out how to build with Unreal Tournament editor. That wasn't exactly workable for the time limit we have, so they decided to modify our assignment. Now we're conducting a research study that looks at the interfaces and game types that students would prefer to learn with/from. We're building two different games with two different engines and then having students play through both. It's all rather involved and I really rather not get into it, cause if I do, I'll remember all that I have to work on (which I'm avoiding right now by typing out this email).

Be assured that I'm perfectly fine and having a blast. I'm really going to miss all my co-workers when I go back home, but the professor is trying hard to convince me to go to grad school here.

Oh! I almost forgot! We're up to our ears in Koreans. The Computer Science department here hosts an international game development program, where universities around the world can send a group of students to learn English and game development. The current group is Koreans and they're a fun bunch. We've been acting as tour guides and teachers for the students for the week they've been here so far, and I tell you what, those Koreans are crazy. There are a few whose English is a lot better then the others, and they're all fun to hang out with.

Um.. oh. Yesterday we took the Koreans to the mall here to go shopping (for five hours) and in my desperation to get a pet, I bought a Tamagotchi. For those of you who don't remember, those are electronic pets in the form of a keychain. I've named it after an inside joke with this group and decided that before I leave, I'm going to go Build A Bear and build something to remember them all by. Back to the pet, he's an easy little thing that I keep with me and play and feed. I must admit, I'd rather have a ferret or puppy, but my living arrangements for the next
five or six years of my life is kinda fuzzy. I plan to go overseas and I can't take any pets with me, so yeah. Hence, Tamagotchi. The good news is that where I'm living for the next couple of years has puppies.

Righto. I need to get back to work. I have a lot of pictures, but they're all on my friend's camera. I'm looking at getting my own camera here in the next few weeks or so to replace my old old one. Oh! Next weekend I'm going to go stay with Ed and Gail for a few days. I'm still not sure how I'm getting there, but I'll figure it out.

Alright, back to work I go..
Love, Peace, and Devastating Slap!
Tar