roguelazer's website

We use the terms "bad dream" and "nightmare" almost synonymously. I contend that this is a frightfully naïve perspective. When we wake from a nightmare, we shortly realize that the floor isn't made of spiders, that all of the clowns are safely at the circus. But a dream in which we are happy... ah! Such a dream can color the real world world a darker shade long after the dreamer has awoken. These are truly the bad dreams.

So, Sunday was my college graduation. I'm now a college graduate. Wow, that's weird to write. If you're curious about we details, I hold a Bacheleor of Science in Computer Science from Harvey Mudd College with overall academic distinction and with departmental honors in two departments. Woo.

It's really weird to be done. I keep expecting that this will just be a break, that things will be back to normal soon. I'd really gotten used to things at Mudd, I was really happy there. Mudders: I already miss you. In retrospect, there are a lot ...

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.

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 ...

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 1^st through August 21^th, working at Google's 9^th 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 ...

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...