The Behrens Venture

Well, it’s been another long while, but that won’t stop me. I write here as an enjoyment, although it’s also a bit of a luxury to find the time to write. The last two weeks have been a mix of activity: finals and then Thanksgiving break travels. Finals weren’t that bad all things considered, I passed my classes and am incredibly happy to be done with that godforsaken quarter. As for my travels over the last week, I spent some time in Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, Point Pleasant, NJ, and Philly, PA visiting friends and relaxing. It’s been a tough quarter, I can take a break, right? I wound up driving around 1400 miles, which gave me a good deal of time to reflect. I arrived home Sunday night with this week left empty, so I can focus and get some work done.

I’ve already spent Monday watching movies, so perhaps I will start working today. For the rest of this week, my rough agenda is as follows:

• Get back on track with the gym and running
• Read up about 2 specific new programming languages: XNA, Obj-C or something.
• Refresh my basic programming skills: Java
• Organize my contacts and get them sync on Google, my Blackberry, and my address book.
• Organize my photos and release my “background collection.”
• Find an internship! Send out more resumes.

Well, time to get started. No need to procrastinate anymore.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 6AM. I had to wake up “early” today to register for winter classes here at RIT. I got all the classes I went, so check out my schedule here. And since I was up, I went for a run too! During my run, it dawned on me how convoluted the registration process is. The whole ordeal of registering for classes this early spawns from the fact that the “main computers” at RIT get turned on at 6AM, thus enabling registration for that day, depending on on status. All year levels register on the same day, so as a freshman, you have a ton of competition trying to get registered for classes. The servers get hammered from a few thousand people trying to get on and you IM your friends saying, “Why are we awake at this godforsaken hour!?” Eventually you get in and hopefully get the classes you want. The interesting part is how there are many tricks and backdoors to the whole process, but of course RIT never mentions any of that. Due to the competitive nature of registering, tips and tricks passed down socially have to be part of the process. It’s an interesting system. Oh well, class time!

I took break for a bit due to major events, but now I’m back. Things that have occurred in the last month:

• I ended my internship in NYC
• Drove overnight to Pittsburgh from NJ (drowsy driving isn’t fun)
• Got a new car (2003 Saturn Vue with many thanks to my Mom!)
• Came back to school at RIT
• Bought a 20″ iMac and haven’t stopped loving it yet

And that’s the bulk of it. Just extremely busy and I haven’t always had access to a PC or the time to jot my thoughts down. Now things have calmed down and I’m back on a regular schedule, hopefully I can write more.

Other minors things worth mentioning, I love OSX and my iMac. I just get things done much quicker and easier when I want. OSX also lets me use TextMate which an awesome text editing software which I’m currently blogging from. I’m also writing this post using Markdown, a “markdown” for writing text, basically making things easier to write. Seems pretty useful, so I’ll see how it works out.

I’m also especially glad to get back to RIT, to gain access to the gym again. I’ve focused mainly on running for the last 6 months, I was down to a sub 7 minute mile for the first time in my life, along with losing 10-15 pounds during that period, so I was extremely lean but lacking any muscle. It’s been great to just lift and get that rush going again. I’m trying to do a combination of running and lifting, maybe 3 days lifting, 3 days running this quarter. I really enjoy doing both, but it’s hard to balance them. I’m also trying out a new running style, Evolution Running thanks to a dvd my friend lent me. It focuses on running more efficiently through running smarter, hitting toe first, and stuff. I totally love it, but it’s been rough on my body. I couldn’t walk for days after the first time I tried it, it’s tough, but I’m adapting. Cya!

Looks like the funeral procession for the firefighter who died in the fire last weekend at the Deutsche Bank building was coming down 5th Ave. I heard the bag pipes and wondered what was up. It’s a sad situation.

https://gothamist.com/2007/08/24/deutschebankf.php

I saw this movie last night and it kicked ass! Movies about high school really are like 10x funnier when you’re not in high school yourself. Really solid characters, plenty of fresh faces, and I really was laughing the entire movie. Highly recommended!