Halloween Fun

Just a quick post. The GSA party on Saturday was lots of fun, as was volleyball before that (we won!) Here's just a single pic of April as Ariel and me in my ghetto legoman costume. I'm actually pretty pleased with how it came out with only two hours work on it. What you can't see is the "Lego" sign on my back, those little holes that all legomen have in the backs of their legs, curved yellow C-shaped hands (that sucked anyway) and April's mermaid fins. Trust me, it's all there.

Job Search Starts

So I got an email from McKinsey & Company yesterday asking if I could come to the first round of interviews in Atlanta on Tuesday. Guess they don't feel the need to give us much warning. Of course I'm going, but I'm kinda freaking out about the whole thing. I have this way of starting things without really understanding the immensity of the situation until I'm pretty far in. And I've done it again. Anyway, Tuesday is just part one of a potential three, and it's at least 4 hours long, consisting, most importantly, of a 60-minute test to get a feel for how well you'd perform in a consulting position. Hrm. And there are a bunch of "practice" case studies that will actually count. I guess the whole thing from beginning to end is just one big test, but it's interesting going from the relatively laid-back style of being a graduate student to the fast-paced, high stress, top-tier consulting world. Boy oh boy this is going to be fun!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

My biggest of big brothers (okay, the only-est of my only brothers, too) turns 30 today!!! Happy Birthday, you old fart! A guy I've always looked up to even once I grew taller than him, he's always been a trailblazer I've tried to follow and a great friend I can count on. It's done me good to have him as an older brother, and I would certainly be a different person today without him in the picture. While his influence isn't as strong now that we're separated by some thirteen hundred miles or so, his importance to me has only grown. They say life starts at thirty, but I think his really started at thirteen. He figured out long before most people that there's no point in waiting - you have to make things happen yourself. So here's to the first thirty years of your long life to come, bro! I look forward to being a part of it.

Big Brother or Impotent Imposition?

This story about the steps taken to monitor children in a Houston school district has me thinking. First, how successful are these systems at actually stopping someone from committing another violent crime once he's set his mind to it? Most of these things have been meticulously planned, and it doesn't seem that constant monitoring would really help that much. Surveillance would get faster response times if implemented correctly, but alone it isn't a preventative measure.

Once you get into restricting who can go where, things get more secure, but they also quickly descend to that Orwellian level where personal freedom could be easily ignored "for their own good." When I have kids (I know, I know, god forbid) I won't want random people able to walk into their schools unchallenged, but I also don't want them to be lulled into forfeiting their civil liberties. I don't know the answer. But I do wonder how children today growing up with this kind of surveillance in schools will view future impositions by other governing bodies. Will they be more likely to allow constant, imposing surveillance in their jobs, their cars, on their cell phones and emails, or by their government? Will constant surveillance at a young age inure them to threats on their civil liberties later in life? It seems likely, but maybe, just maybe, it would create the opposite effect and produce a backlash once their kids are able to vote. Of course, that's giving people a lot of credit, and while I'm prone to give children a hell of a lot more credit than most adults, I guess I'm still a pessimist at the moment.

And the Nobel goes to...

Another American! So far, the first four Nobel Prizes - Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics - have all gone to six Americans. With only the Literature and Peace prizes left, could it be a sweep for the US?

Mad Props!

The Eagles beat Green Bay! Of course, looking at the injury reports, I don't know how long they'll be able to keep it up, but they're off to a pretty good start. And did anyone see how the Bears absolutely crushed the Seahawks? Where'd that come from?

In other news, my labmate and friend Dharmpal isn't getting the credit he deserves for his single pixel camera research, which is currently garnering national attention for Rice. I know the role, so I'm giving him a shoutout here and a reminder with the news links that he's the one responsible for making the hardware work. You go, man! We'll graduate someday!

It's Go Time!

I've always wanted to say that.

But seriously - the Eagles on Monday Night Football! Woot! I'm only going to be at my Valhalla shift for a very short while tonight so I can run back to the 51" widescreen HDTV at my house and watch Green Bay get eviscerated in HD. Now that's my idea of a good time!