Monday, May 30, 2005

BBQ In the QA

Because people of my generation are still celebrating things at night (read: we drink)... we had to celebrate Memorial Day on sunday night. So, my roommates and I had a BBQ.

Pregame - I had heard that parties on Queen Anne get broken up pretty early, so when the invite went out... we would startup the BBQ at 5PM. Another precaution we took was to turn our lawn into a beer garden. We went to the Home Depot and got some fencing stuff. The fence really added some authority to our scheme of looking like young professionals blowing off some steam (read: yuppies drinking).

Game Time - Jennthe is probably the best person in the world. Jennthe and I were interns together last summer, and therefore "forever connected" (for those of you familiar with Boeing, I was trying to work in "Forever New Frontiers"... but, I didn't feel like expending the mental energy). Jenn came over like 5 hours early, and started making the best asian food I've ever had: Lumpia. What are Lumpias? (I don't know how to pluralize words in Tagalog... sorry). Short answer: Filipino Spring Rolls. But... they are oh so much more. Here is how Jenn made them, but the contents of a Lumpia can be as numerous as the islands of the Philippines.
  • Finely dice 4 carrots
  • Finely dice 4 stalks of celery
  • Finely dice 1 medium onion

Now mash up all that stuff with 4 lbs of Ground Beef. Thats the stuffing for the Lumpia. Now roll these guys up in some Lumpia wrappers (available at Uwajimaya). Lumpia are usually long and skinny (almost like a taquito). Make sure to use some egg-whites to "glue" the wrapper shut. Now you wait for your friends to show up because unlike revenge, Lumpia is a dish best served warm. Put about 4 inches of oil in a tall pot, and get it pretty warm. Now fry your Lumpia in there. They should take about 4 minutes in the oil to cook.

They were pure heaven. Jenn also made some ridiculicious potatoes (I just made that word up... ridiculously delicious smashed into one word).
Me and the roommates also served up some India Pale Ale that we brewed a couple months ago. I don't want to brag... but it was easily the best IPA I've ever had. Side note: A group of my friends brew beer in my basement. You can read about beer-brewing exploits here.

I just want to give a quick shout out to all the people that brought beer and food... you guys rule. I also just want to thank everyone for coming, it was awesome. We'll be doing that again a couple times this summer.

Postgame - The party really shut down about 10:30PM... and everyone went to the Paragon (a bar that is only about 6 blocks away). And when we got there, there was one of the coolest bands I've ever heard. There were only 2 guys; a guy on a guitar, and a guy playing a stand-up bass. What was the first thing we heard them play? The music from Mario level on Bowser's floating ship. It was intense. Then they played Stairway to Heaven... which rocked unbelievable amounts of yuppie-butt.

Unlike a college or high school party, this BBQ was amazingly easy to clean up. My friends all "respected" the house, and put their can and whatnot into the garbage... so it only took about 45 minutes to clean up the house this morning.

And because when people found out about this last night, they seemed upset that I hadn't told them already... so I figured I should probably just tell everyone. Today is my 23rd birthday.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I can't believe I forgot this...

The blog just had its first birthday May 11th. Happy Birthday to this inanimate object!

Two Huge Announcements

I've got lots of awesome news to report... but 2 mega-awesome things, so I'll restrict it to just those 2.
I've been accepted to the Masters of Software Development and managementt at Carnegie Mellon University (West Coast Campus). I'm really excited. And, the awesome thing? Boeing will pay for the whole thing. Boeing's Learning Together Program is truly amazing. I haven't heard of a program like it an any other company. The LTP will pay for any school you could want to take! (I heard they won't pay for a Ph.D, but I'm not sure about that). I think when I'm done with my Masters, I'm going to take some language courses. I want to learn Spanish (or German, or something else equally cool). And, I shan't pay a single penny out of my pocket. I've been toying with the idea of getting my Masters of CS too... but that is in the future.

And the second piece of awesome news: I made it to Phase II for my CII idea. I'm going to get some funding to work on putting computer games on airplanes. How much does that rule? Next time you're on an airplane, and you're bored out of your mind... just think: "Adam is working on fixing this". Remember... I'm always looking out for you.
During the last phase, I had focused on making sure this idea sounded fun. And everyone agrees with me that it would be fun to play games... but the Analysts they have in the CII are amazing; they saw pitfalls of this project that I never even imagined (I was going to list them out... but I'm not on my work computer, so I don't remember what all of them were). But, the cool thing is that most of the comments were really positive, and it feels cool to have your brain-child "validated" by smart people.
Now, during Phase II, I have to focus on the business side of things for the project. I definitely glossed over these during Phase I, so I'm basically starting from zero in this aspect. I just got some statistics from Connexion to use in my business proposal... and I'm not sure I understand everything on these charts. I actually saw words on these charts that I had NO idea what they meant.
But before I get too much into Phase II, I have to give a presentation to the Programs Manager of Connexion (I think thats what he is... Shannon, is that right?) next Thursday... and from the sounds of it, he holds the ultimate fate of my idea in his hand.

And as a PS. I just got back from NYC on Monday, and I had a B-L-A-S-T. And while I was there, I thought it would be awesome to move to Manhattan. But, I just went to Ivar's with some friends; it was a beautiful day, and I don't think I can move away from Seattle any time soon. We sat on the dock, drinking Coronas, watching the boats roll by.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

late night

It's almost 1AM. I've got a flight to New York at 8:15AM. I'm still at work... and no end in site.

Monday, May 16, 2005

I'm a bad person

I feel bad... I haven't posted for a while. I'll give you a brief rundown of why I haven't had the time
  • Car Work - The engine in my '95 Jeep Wrangler tried to fall out. When I took it to a mechanic, they told me that I needed to buy an entirely new engine. With installation, $5000. No thank you. I took it back to Spokane so I could work on it with my dad. We fixed it for about $150. That took 2 weekends.
  • U of Idaho Graduation - I went back to Moscow for U of I's graduation last weekend. A lot of my really good friends were graduating... and I wanted to be there. Plus, I wanted to have one last weekend of collegehood. It was worth the 10 hours of driving. Its amazing how well balanced the kids that come out of UI are. There are so many people that are fun to hang out with, but at the same time, really smart. Congrats to my awesome and smart friends. This is going to sound mother-ish... but I'm so proud of all of you.
    • Danny: My roommate (and best friend) for 3.5 years. Going to work at Schweitzer Engineering Labs. And he signed the papers to buy his first house today. Congrats Fancy.
    • Patty: He's going to work at Intel on gigabit ethernet.
    • Erica: Going to grad school at UC Santa Barbara to work on Optical Signal Processing
    • Vedran: Going to work for Fast Enterprises. The little Croatian kid made it.
    • Yes, there are more... but its "late" (now that I'm old, 10:30PM is late)
  • CII - I've been working on my Gate I presentation. I'll be presenting on Wednesday... wish me luck. I'm usually pretty good at talking in front of people... but in the past, the only thing that has been on the line has been a grade; now there is actual money stake.
On a side note: Interns are arriving, summer is beginning, my motorcycle is running, I'm going to NYC next weekend, I finally bought some tools.... Life is freaking awesome.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Oregon Trip


Token Sunset on Oregon Coast
Originally uploaded by adamb0mb.
One of the great parts about Seattle is leaving. Seattle is awesome, and part of that awesomeness is the location. Seattle is located in one of the most beautiful parts of the US (if not the world!).
After a short 5 hour drive, my friends and I pulled up to a wonderful house on the Oregon coast. We payed peanuts for this house... about $20 per night per person... some of the best money I've ever spent though.
We feasted like kings, and drank according to Cliff's Buffalo Theory.