Much of my summer was spent running around in a lab coat and safety glasses. The U.W. chemistry department was kind enough to take me on as an intern, so 30 hour weeks of washing beakers and manipulating chemicals became my first real job. I enjoyed myself for sure; it’s great to be able to learn things and get paid for it (albeit minimum wage). But I’ve pretty much decided that chemistry isn’t a major interest for me. I found that, once you learn the concepts and techniques (which are fascinating, don’t get me wrong), it’s mostly just repetitive execution of things you already know how to do. That’s not what I want to do with my life. I want something that provides a new challenge every day, new wisdom around every corner. But either way, my internship was a vastly worthwhile experience.

I can now add “runner” to the list of words that describe me. Over the last few months, nearly every morn has seen a 4-5 mile jog. I take days off to keep from running myself down, but I love the near-daily endorphin rush and how thoroughly refreshed I feel afterwards. Not to mention keeping fit, which is always a bonus. Ultimate season come hither.

I started writing my college applications too. I have my heart perhaps irrationally set on Stanford, which seems perfect in any number of ways. With academics of renowned quality, a beautiful campus, the best computer science department in the country, a purportedly easy-going social atmosphere, fantastic weather, and a stellar Ultimate team, no other school could seem more perfect. I’ve written drafts for the common app and the Stanford supplement, and though I feel good about the content, they are uniformly too long by about 20% each. I hate length requirements. But I can have it all polished and ready to go by November 1st, deadline for the early decision application. The hardest job now is figuring out where else I’d be happy if/when Stanford rejects me.

I’ve pretty much decided what I want to do with my life. Don’t bother with the drum roll: I’ve done this before, but my interests have take a new turn of late. Previously I have been interested in pure science or math, dedicating my life to research and doing my part towards the enrichment of human knowledge. While this still holds some appeal, my enduring interest in computer science and my desire to change the world have morphed my aspirations into a more illustrious and elusive career plan: I want to be a digital entrepreneur. Mom says I was born 20 years too late for this to be a successful idea, but I beg to differ. With the right education, a lot of creativity (which I think I can muster), some great business partners, and the wide, wide world of venture capitalism, I think I have a good chance. And if it doesn’t work the first time, I can just eat ramen for another year and try again, right? Right.

The summer has seen many other things come to pass. I’ve spent a lot of time with friends new and old, and eaten some great food. I’ve watched some good movies, read some good books, and I went to B.C. with my parents. I managed to destroy and reinstall my operating system three times, and learned in the process the valuable skills of data recovery. I began writing software to simulate the “social fish,” or how a simple organism will act in a group. I saw Chromeo live in concert at the Capitol Hill Block Party. I legally became a man, and can now buy all the dry ice and scratch tickets I want. I won $2.20 at Emerald Downs. I’ve discovered a lot of good music, and have even begun creating some of my own. I continue to learn and practice the skills of a Linux user, and enjoy it. I dislocated my shoulder trying to break up a dogfight, the last time I’ll try to pull that stunt. And I got volunteer hours aplenty, but not nearly enough, of course.

Some things remain unaccomplished. I have yet to obtain a drivers license; I’m a great driver and have taken the “knowledge test”, but I can’t take the “skill test” until October 3rd. It has become a fall project. I planned to start a band with a friend this summer, but all we never got around to recording anything. Another fall project. I also meant to spend more time geeking around on my computer this summer, but I only accomplished a moderate amount of this. A guy can’t do everything, though I continue to give it my best shot.

A good summer. A full summer. The last summer that I spend before seeing all my high school peers again. The last summer before I know what I’ll be doing with the four most pivotal years of my life. I think I spent it well. And though I mourn its passing, I feel it couldn’t have been more than it was. Back to life in a different fast lane.

 * * *

Beep…beep…beep…

Private Josh Kalder turned over underneath his blanket, simultaneously inhaling a lungful of crisp, faintly metallic-smelling air. Of course, he no longer sensed any variance from conventional air; the erstwhile tellurian had long ago become accustomed to the conditions of an interstellar lifestyle. It had been a good fourteen years, give or take a month or two, since his childhood departure from Planet Earth, and recollections of all but the most visceral aspects of mankind’s shared homeland had slipped away with the time.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Kalder laboriously dragged himself from the depths of somnolence to sit up and press the small orange button on the side of his bunk which deactivated his personal alarm. 0600. Time to rise and shine. It was today that they would go after The Bear. (more…)

It was a bright and sunny day in my neighborhood. I was lounging at our picnic table in the back yard, studiously completing some very boring homework for a class whose unworthy name shall not be mentioned. I felt my consciousness begin to slip, and as my head gradually grew closer and closer to the surface of the table, I began to doze. Suddenly I awoke with a start! Something had happened! But what was it?

(more…)

# A quick function to determine if a given number is prime
def isprime(num):
lst=[]
for n in range(2,num/2+1):
if round(num/n)*n==num:
lst.append(n)
if len(lst)==0:
print "Yeah, it's prime"
return True
else:
print "Nope, actually it has factors", lst
return False

After publishing this and looking at the result, I realize that the highlighting works, but there is no automatic indentation! As indentation is critical with Python, I think I’ll be searching for another plugin that can handle this.

Why tell you all this? Well, I feel somewhat guilty for my sparse and infrequent posts of late, and I thought I’d just drop one down to explain myself. Also, I just like to complain about how much I have to do. I feel much of my studiously acquired coding skills slipping slowly away, and I haven’t even installed the new release of Ubuntu yet! My site, despite many needed updates, has not been touched in months. I made another site for a guy (http://www.poppp.org), but you’ve heard nothing of it yet. Yes, life is extraordinarily busy when I have no choice but to allow such a moratorium on my previously quotidian computing activities. But calm thine beating heart, I shall return to said endeavors come summer. I’ll have plenty of time outside of playing Ultimate, working in an internship at my local university (I don’t yet know what exactly I’ll be doing, but you’ll know about it when I do), and engaging in assorted social activities. With this time, I’ll fix up my site, work on some recreational coding projects, and more. Summer, come hither.

Over and out. I have to go write two essays.

–…

-Calling all transcendent entities, please respond if you exist.

–…

-Maybe I’m understanding this incorrectly, but when something is actually there, there is, by definition, some tangible evidence of its presence. This is a fact established by even the most primitive sciences. But I also find it hard to believe that the majority of the world’s population could be wrong. Weigh in?

–…

-Or am I just arguing semantics? When people say that God exists, maybe they mean that he is a very, very important manifestation of their imaginations. And the imaginations of many around the world. In my opinion, something can’t exist unless I can detect it. It is not enough for me to realize that I don’t know what animates life and the goings on of the universe in general, and from there extrapolate the presence of some omnipotent and omnipresent force. And to personify said force is even more anathema to my beliefs.

–…

-I think the belief in God stems from the fear of the unknown. If one is unable to determine the origin of or the impetus behind something, like, say, the universe and our existence within it, it’s vastly comforting to have an explanation. God is a tool of the unsure and frightened, used to reassure them that there is something looking on, something protecting. That there is a purpose and design to this otherwise ostensibly meaningless and chaotic existence.

–…

-I don’t intend to preach the superiority of the confident. If you need a manufactured explanation to allow you to live comfortably, I support the fulfillment of that need. God is like medicine: it will cure the fundamental ailment of fear. If one is born with asthma, would I look upon him with disdain solely because he needs medication to maintain his comfortable existence? Certainly not. In the same way, if one is brought up to need his belief in God to deal with his fear and live happily, let him have it.

–…

-The only way a believer or group of believers can engender my contempt is if they tries to push their belief upon me or others who do not natively share it. I find this contrary to the whole nature of religion, as it is an individual pursuit to remedy an individual ailment. I do not take issue with churches or organized religion in general if it is only providing a template for one cure to fear. But when a church begins to proselytize it’s doctrine, claiming its superiority and attempting to “convert”, it has surpassed its purpose and rightful domain, and deserves no respect from me or anyone.

–…

-And yes, I believe belief in God is a matter of nurture, not nature. As I have already established, I believe God is merely a construction of the mind, and thus belief in “Him” is neither genetic nor inherent to the human character. The fear of the generally unknown could be the latter, but a belief in God is only one way to cope with that. One obtains his belief in God by the vector of those who have brought him up, either providing him with the traditional means of dealing with the aforementioned fear, namely religion, or by leaving him to come up with his own means. I am exceedingly grateful that my parents have left me to be one of the latter, allowing me to start out with and maintain an open mind.

–…

-But how do I personally deal with the fear of the unknown, that which seems native to the human? Certainly not by any god. I label myself as an atheist, and thereby claim to not utilize any personified idealogical construct to extirpate the fear inherent in my species. Instead, I personally follow a path of scientific optimism. True I do not know why I am here and whence I have come, but I have a conviction that it will become apparent with time. This belief that the unknown is temporary quite lessens my fear of it, and leaves me mobilized to seek truth in life, rather than merely adhere to supernatural explanations. I believe that science, the field I wish to pursue, shall eventually uncover the foundations of our existence, physical and otherwise. Until then, I believe that we must pay attention to the fact that we know a lot about the origins of ourselves and the universe already, and are well on our way to understanding everything there is to be understood.

–…

Playing with The GIMP a few days ago in a moment of relative idleness, I created this cool looking image which I might use as an avatar, or at least a “signature” on the forums I am known to frequent.

The evolution of the design is somewhat intriguing. I usually sign my emails “-Matt”, but screwed up once, and typed “_matt”. I thought this looks pretty cool (though I couldn’t tell you why), so I started using it. But then I thought of an abbreviation: “_m@”. Voilà. Idea + GIMP = avatar.