Winter is coming.
2006+10+20
(
Note: If you like my Friendster blog, check out my other blogs on Google Blogger: My All-Purpose Blog, My Tech Blog, My 100 Goals , Esperanto Blog ). 
–Shurik
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Sunday, October
23, 2005.
Reading Catch 22.
Working as programmer/intern with Analytic.com. I am building a Customer
Relations Management system. The database aspect is there, using technologies
like SQL Server, ASP.NET, C#. I like working here at Analytic for a few reasons. First, the customers are school districts, who use our product to manage their HR details, finances, benefits, and more. Second, I get to build something the way I see fit, using whatever tool or method I see fit (currently, I’m building an ASP.NET WebForm with C# the language of choice for logical manipulation). No one is preventing me from building a C++ application, or a Java application; in fact, my boss keeps the options open. Third, I’m learning as much as I can (currently, I’m working with pattern matching–C# has a class that allows using regular expressions). This internship has been a neat exposition into the realm of technological developments…and the interesting thing is that the things that I learn sort of seem to fall into my lap…one topic naturally leads into another, as if a problem naturally seeks a resolution. Validation of forms in ASP.NET may use pattern matching, for example. It’s also interesting that whatever I learn can have a direct implementation that you can point at and say, "Look! There is that something I built!"
Car is at the end of creation/maintenance/destruction cycle. Mechanic said this
morning, car looks in bad shape. But how will I commute to Los Altos to go to work every day? I suppose it’s time to
revert to the trusty, California
public transportation system. (Later note:–two months later–the car is still working fine…).
There’s some hope of full wage/full-benefits employment with a company
Mercury.com, with whom I had a technical screen test in
C/C++/Java/Databases/Operating Systems. Test took me 2 hours and 15
minutes–the maximum allotted). Mercury is bigger than Analytic, but they both
seem to carry a spirit of independence. Somehow being at Analytic, and reading the
New York Times business section, makes me think of how besides the
product of the company, and the customer base, and the employee output and
input, there is also the no less important monetary base, a financial footing,
that makes initiatives possible to implement, and kicks employee morale up. After
all, living in America,
in a city, in the Bay Area, people need to earn a decent living, to afford groceries, a roof over one’s
head, heat and maybe air conditioning. Not to mention a car, which is a heavy dose of necessity and part luxury (there are alternatives–for example, my direct superior and mentor at CafePress biked to work and either didn’t own a car or didn’t drive one; similarly, many professors and GSIs at UC Berkeley biked to work). In addition, none of
these things are permanent. Cars and houses wear out, and start to creak, and
wear out their transmissions. Floods and earthqueakes happen. And so being under the wing of the employers, who
provides you with a weekly or biweekly check, medical benefits, a tax-deferred
retirement plan, in return for your time and initiative, does indeed provide a
sort of comfort and security.
Winter is coming, said the mechanic. Winter is coming, said a friend.
***December 25, 2005: By the way, winters in California are mild, at best.
