Job Search: Complete
This post is a follow-up to Real-Life Update

Well, it was brief but exhausting. My job search has now come to a
close. I interviewed at a large number of companies, got offers from a
smaller number, and accepted an offer from Yelp. I'll be
starting in June on the Infrastructure team, doing something between
software engineering and system administration. Which sounds, you know,
awesome.
For the unaware, Yelp is a local search company based out of San
Francisco, CA. They've got a pretty large userbase, and lots of views,
and, in general, interesting problems to work on. There's already a
Mudder there. Plus, it's a really small company. Should be a great
atmosphere to work in coming out of Mudd's tight-knit community. And, of
course, San Francisco is an awesome city.
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Real Life Update
I'm about to finish my second-to-last semester of college. That in and
of itself is perhaps a somewhat stunning thing to think about. Equally
important, of course, is the question of what I'll do once I leave. I've
been interviewing with a half-dozen companies, and just got back the
other day from a trip up to the Bay Area to do in-person interviews with
Yelp and NVIDIA. I'd forgotten how nice the Bay Area was. I
stayed in downtown San Francisco, at The Mosser Hotel, and it was,
well, really nice. Caltrain is also an awesome commuter rail system.
The …
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Newport Folk Festival

I spent Saturday at the 50th Newport Folk Festival, and it was
excellent. Some of the highlights? Well, let's see… I saw Iron & Wine,
The Decemberists, Fleet Foxes… the list goes on.
Aside from a little bit of sunburn and a lighter wallet thanks to having
my chair set up perilously close to the Del's stand, it was awesome.
The festival was held at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI, and
started at 11:30 in the morning. We even managed to get there for about
11:30, after waiting only about half an hour for a parking spot. Right
off the bat, the festival opened with a legendary name in folk:
Ramblin' Jack Elliott. He was fun to listen to (lots of stories,
obviously), although not quite as dynamic a musician as some of the
others. Other early acts that I took in part of were Tift Meritt and
Ben Kweller. Merritt didn't make much of an impression on me, but I
rather liked Kweller.
Around lunchtime, I watched Billy Bragg, about whom I have somewhat
mixed feelings. He was very… politicized. On the one hand, I agree
with him and his songs about why socialized medicine is good and
deregulated banking is bad. On the other hand, even a rather staunch
social liberal such as myself might want to listen to some music without
the prosthelytizing that seems to be part of his music. I also saw a
little bit of Tom Morello, who I won't even give a link to. He did not
appeal to me.
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One To Go
Well, I'm done with another semester. That finishes off my third year
here in Claremont. One to go. Woo.
Summer Employment
Well, my job search is over. As of today, I've accepted an
offer from Google for a summer internship. I'll be in New York City
from June 1st through August 21th, working at
Google's 9th Avenue office. I'm not sure where exactly I'll be living (I'm looking to
apartments, student housing, etc., but haven't settled on anything yet),
but I'll try to keep you, my loyal readers, up to date.
It was a hard decision (I had a few offers, including DreamHost and
DirecTV, plus more interviewers interested), but, I mean, it's sort
of hard to say …
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A Beautiful Day To Be Outside

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Clear blue skies,
mid-70's temperature, low smog, completely perfect. So, like any other
sane human being, I decided to take a walk. Specifically, I hiked up to
the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park, which is a nice little place a
few miles north of campus. On the way there, I was really struck by
life in California. Here I was, walking along on one of the most
beautiful days of the year, and I didn't see more than a half-dozen
other pedestrians on the two-and-a-half mile walk up to the park. Of
course, I saw several hundred cars, trucks, and SUVs. I saw people
driving from their homes on Mills down the street to Vons and back
again. It's so weird here – on the one hand, a lot of people seem to be
"fitness freaks" and very concerned with "wellness", but on the other
hand there's this overbearing car culture…
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