Finally starting a blog...
by Josh Staiger
Hello everybody. Welcome to my very own weblog. This is something that I have been meaning to start for quite a while now, but have never had the chance to get around and do. Now that it is summer and I really have no more excuse (no more papers or tests to worry about), I am finally getting around to doing it. I'm hoping that it will help with keeping in touch with people back home and keeping everyone updated on my shenanigans this summer ;)
For anyone who doesn't know (or care :), I'm currently in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I am working for IBM. I will be here for the summer (through mid-August).
In short, I just got finished going through five months of hell, but at least I have this to show for it:
| SUBJ | CRSE | COURSE TITLE | FGR |
| ENGL | 379 | TPC: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS | A |
| POSC | 367 | WESTERN EUROPEAN POL SYSTEMS | A |
| EECS | 314 | COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE | A |
| EECS | 345 | PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CONCEPTS | A |
| EECS | 391 | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | A |
It's quite a nice feeling to be able to pull that off in such an otherwise very negative semester (for other reasons).
I'm also very pleased that I managed to land this job with IBM. Getting away and meeting new people is exactly what I need right now. As of today, I have finished my second week of work, and things seem to be going very well right now. My boss, Andrei, seems to be an incredibly nice guy. I enjoy the work (so far they have me in software testing of Websphere Portal Content Publisher), and I'm meeting a ton of really cool people.
I went rock-climbing last weekend at Pilot Mountain (that mountain with the big bolder on top of it that I always remember driving past as a kid) with Jason (my cube-mate) and some other people. I have pictures from that trip that I will be posting in a little bit.
Right now it's nearly two in the morning, and I just got back from a small get-together at Christine Lee's house (a fellow IBMer and what a sweetie! :). I met a lot of really nice people there.
However, I'm not planning on sleeping any time soon. Why? Because I'm going skydiving tomorrow (!). I hope I don't die! :)
"Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?"
-- Epicurus