Gasping, hunting, writing, sleeping, repeating...

I've been writing a fair bit, including a few posts I *really* want to post, but they'r on my laptop. In my hotel room. I've been insanely busy these past two days, but the writing's piling up. I am so stressed. It will all come out soon, and there's a lot to share.

For now, keep me company by writing in the comments, or writing a quick page to my pocket. My mobile PCS # to send to is 5103341620 (please, please don't abuse it).

One more full day of hunting, then a half day and a speedy return to SF for me! Thanks for being patient. :-)

The macs in the clusters at CMU have an option to change the key layout to Dvorak. Heh.

Joy is logging in to my school-to-be's computers and registering my laptop and wireless card so that, even though classes don't start for two months, I can open up my powerbook anywhere inside CMU's campus-wide wireless network and have 2Mbps net connectivity.

Tomorrow will be surreal (and by 'tomorrow' I mean Tuesday, since my flight arrives in Pitts at 11pm Monday). On one hand I know the area so well, as conveyed through texts, maps, and a dozen vignettes from a dozen different Pittsburghers' experiences. On the other hand I've never been there, and therefore can't know what it's like.

It reminds me of when I went to 'CalSO' (Student Orientation) at Berkeley back in '91. I'd already chosen Berkeley as my college, but I had yet to set foot in it, so the 3-day orientation (with my mom alongside) was my first Berkeley experience. The odd part is that I still vividly remember being dropped off by the cab, in the morning, in the rain, between Soda Cory Hall and North Gate, and finding our way up to Foothill. Later in the week, I remember walking over (and taking a picture of) the bridge between the Faculty Club and LeConte (the one that has 'MDCCCCX' on the arch).

I clearly remember these images and the primative mental topologies associated with them, but the odd part is that they don't match up to the Berkeley I found once I lived there. It's as if they're out of phase, as if I was viewing them from a different perspective (and I suppose I was, temporally as well as mentally).

I'm really curious about the CMU I'll discover this week. Even once I get back, I'll be interested to see if this will be the same CMU that I'll know after living there 6 months. I'll gain more fidelity in my mental map, to be sure, but I wonder if this weeks experiences will connect to the later ones or if, like my CalSO experience, it's an island of its own, with similar landmarks, but on a different plane...

More than anything though, I hope 4 days is enough time to find a good apartment. I'm bringing my camera and the aforementioned powerbook, so you can expect further bulletins to follow through the week.

Have a good one!

According to CNN, South Korea plans to use the World Cup to "attrack tourists."

Since the story is a video segment and requires a paid subscription, one can only wonder what 'attracking' is, but I've got a hunch that it's using a high-profile spectator event to lure foreign nationals into your country, then holding them hostage, or at least taking their wallets. But hey, judge for yourself:

Walking down to Shattuck to see an 11am showing of The Bourne Identity, I couldn't help but notice that everything seemed lighter, bigger... freer. It's weird, since I loved my job, and still do even though I don't happen to have it anymore, but the world seemes so full of possibility.

I leave Monday to find an apartment in Pittsburgh. With the Pittsburgh Bible and advice from dozen of current and former Pittsies, I'm hoping that four days is enough time to find a place I'll happily call home for the next year.

In other news, I built a community this week! Gathering the names and emails of the 30 incoming grad students to the Interaction Design and HCII masters programs, I created a Yahoo Group and sent out an invitation mail, so we could all get to know each other, share info on housing, moving and (as it turns out) drivers licenses and vehicle registrations. The community's only three days old and already there's a thriving community of us. Hearing about the passions, worries, and expectations of my classmates-to-be is getting me excited all over again, and looking at some of their portfolios makes me certain that this is exactly the place I want to be, and has got me thinking about making a portfolio of my own...

Hogwart's, here I come!

Today is a very strange day. Yesterday was my last day of Spanish class, which, incidentally, fulfilled the final, lingering requirement for my Berkeley bachelors degree in Cognitive Science.

I used to joke that the strange thing about being at Berkeley 10 years after starting was that every year the students got younger. The funny part is that in my final semester at Berkeley, I had a breadth requirement class filled with freshmen and sophomores. Now, for this Spanish class I took at De Anza community college, several of my fellow students were still in high school, seniors and more than a couple juniors. Seems the students actually are getting younger each year.

And so it was with a turning in of a take-home final and a long drive home that I finish a degree that began eleven years ago when I came to Berkeley out of high school. After a full graduation ceremony at the Greek Theatre this time last year, this true finale is a bit of an anticlimax...

On the work-front: Yahoo threw a going-away party for me at work yesterday! I was really touched. So many people were happy for my upcoming adventure, expressing their sadness that I'm going, and I reciprocate every bit. Instant messaging is interesting here: All these people are in my friend list, and will stay there. Considering how most of us communicate in the office via IMs, when I log in from home, school, or wherever, they're all just a click away.

So I have to jam outta here in a few minutes (still at home) to go to my exit interview with the HR folk, then finish up a few loose ends, and pack up my cube. After such a warming sendoff yesterday, and with almost half of my department telecommuting on Fridays, this too is an anticlimax...

Okay, I don't usually hop on the 'Which X Are You' bandwagon, but this one's close to my heart. So: Which IM are you?

Frantically busy in my last two days at Yahoo, but if there's one thing I know about me, it's that if I don't document an idea, I'll forget it, even one as recurring as this one. So:

Copy, Cut, and Paste are great, but three times today and usually at least once a day, I wished there was a Switch command. This command (by keystroke (Cmd-Shift-V) or edit menu) would replace the current selection with the clipboard contents, exactly as paste does, but would also replace the clipboard contents with the otherwise-vaporized current selection.

Another way to look at this is "pick up selection and put down what I was holding before."

Think about this feature today, and see how many times you'd have wanted to use it...

Alameda Courts: 0, Kevin: 3. For the third year running, they've sent me a jury duty notice, then on the day-of, told me I didn't need to come in.

It'd be nice if they streamlined that process a bit...

I'm the first person in my group in to work today.

No jury duty this morning, but I have to call in again between 11 and 12 to find out if I need to come in for the 2pm juror call. Of course, the 2pm jurors aren't likely to hear cases today, but they might be assigned to cases starting tomorrow (my 'last day' at Yahoo), so if I *do* get called in, it will be pointless anyhow, since I can't sit on a multi-day jury. Argh.

Anyhow, hellishly busy wrapping things up, and I've pushed my last day from Thursday to Friday because somehow I have to find time to actually pack up my cube. Sorry if posts are a bit sporadic for the next couple days. :-D