SoCal 2006 roadtrip

Whooooooooo!!!
I just came back from an 11-day roadtrip all through southern California and Las Vegas. We went to Santa Barbara, Los Angelos, Orange County, San Diego, and last but not least Las Vegas, Nevada.


All this came together with most of us Actel new interns, with some of the old ones too, who planned most of it. There was a total of 21 of us, renting 5 cars. Driving through Cali is absolutely awesome! It's great to be on the open road, but riding on the California west coast is way above anything. I'll describe each destination separately, and here are some of the (above par quality) photos I took along the way:

• album 1
• album 2
• album 3

Moving to new apartment

This weekend, Will, Joe and I moved into our new place. Our 1-month stint at Oakwood came to an end and it was time to move on...

Our new apartment is awesome. It's a townhome complex called Willowbend in Sunnyvale. This is where we'll spend the next 12 months. Our apartment is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, living, dining, balcony, etc., but it's different than everyone else's in that it's two floors; bedrooms upstairs, everything else on first floor.

It was a hell of a job moving all the furniture this weekend. On Saturday, we went around to 5 old interns' apartments and U-Hauled everything into the living room. On Sunday, we organized the furniture into separate rooms, but it wasn't easy getting beds up the ridiculously narrow stairs to second floor. I originally bought a queen size bed, but there was no way to fit it through, so I traded it with my good buddy Jacques' double, which is actaully quite a bit better. I also like all the other furniture in my room; a desk, dresser, cupboard, floorlamp, chair, and drying rack. The whole room cost close to $200, but it's a pretty complete set.

Santa Cruz Beach

The beach is a religion in California. On recommendation of the old interns, we headed to Santa Cruz beach today, being a long weekend Memorial Day. It's a 40 min drive away, but we made an hour and half trip out of it.


The beach itself is beautiful. It's not as big as I thought it might be, but it was still way better than any beach in Toronto. I really need work on my tan. It was super crowded when we arrived, but was pretty spread out by the time we were leaving. The water was surprisingly calm, but cold as hell. None of us fully dipped in the water. Another cool thing about this place is the 'Boardwalk'. It's like a carnaval fair, with food, games, and rides, located right on the shore. Overall, a really fun day on the beach. Here are some pictures.

San Francisco

We went sightseeing in San Francisco today. It was our first weekend together, and of course we had to make our way to SanFran. Just to make things more justified, it was George's birthday on saturday and Michelle's today.

We left Mountain View around noon and took about an hour to get there. Obviously, it wouldn't be a trip if we didn't get lost. The places we visted were: the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Dwarf, Lombard Street, Full House houses, Chinatown and ChaChaCha. The unfortunate thing is, we missed the last Alcatraz tour, which was at 2:15. This definitely has to be made up for. I personally would like to go through the downtown area again. There's sooo much stuff going on.

Here is the link to my facebook album for the day.

California Dreamin'

The Eagle has landed folks. I am now in Mountain View, California. I arrived in San Francisco on Saturday morning. The flight here was very smooth. From the airport, we were picked up by a limo service to our corporate housing in Mt. View called Oakwood. This place is sweeet, it's basically a resort. A fully furnished 2-bed, 2-bath apartment, tennis court, basketball court, swimming pool, jacuzzi, barbeques, game room, excercise room, free breakfast every morning, and happy hour every Thursday.

I started work at Actel on Monday 22nd. First day and a half was the intern orientation, which was mostly HR paperwork. Got my rental car and a bank account opened up. I only get the free rental for a month, and have to share with my roommate, and it's a Chevy Aveo, but hey, I'm not complaining when it's free.

I still can't believe I'm here in California. It's hot and sunny outside. Life is good.

OW Ow ow oW OW

My entire lower face is in severe agony right now, due to getting my wisdom teeth pulled out this morning. I had the operation done at 9:30. They said it would be about an hour, but actually lasted 2 hours. During the entire procedure I was knocked out by anesthetics through my arm and some laughing gas at the begining. Overall, the surgery went quite smoothly.

I couldn't feel anything below my upper lip when it was done. Almost the entire mouth was numb, but now that it has wore off, all I feel is the stinging pain of my swollen jaw. It's so swollen, I actually look different. I look like I have a very broad jaw, like Chuck Norris. My best friends right now: Tylenol3 and antibiotics. And I can't eat anything, my mouth can barely open to drink water. This will probably last for another couple days before the swelling goes down and I'm able to use my mouth a little bit.

I just pray there won't be any post-operative problems or complications, like an infection or anything like that. I only have until next friday before I leave, so it's quite critical that my recovery is full, and without any complications.

Preshness

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, finally done exams! And no more exams for another 20 months.

This term's exams were that bad, I think I did good on most of them... I think. It was super busy at the very start of exam session, due to everything cramming together, and it was super lazy at the end, because of all the time I had to study for courses that don't need much studying. Even though the exam period was exactly as long as December's, I wasn't as anxious about finishing it. I guess Christmas time really had me on my toes back then. I do have reasons to be just as excited now though.

To reflect back on this semester, the best way to describe it would be how relaxed it was. This term's workload was surpringly low. Shocking, isn't it? As always, with more free time means more time wasted on stupid things. I'm definitely not naming them. One thing that primarily occupied my mind, and I 'm sure many others as well, were the PEY internships. Applying to jobs, doing interviews, waiting for offers, the whole process was quite tiring.

I now have about 2 weeks to get ready before leaving to California. A few things I need to get done before going:
+ pull my widsom teeth out; since I won't be seeing a dentist for a whole year, better to get it done now
+ clean up my desk, room, and other parts of the house
+ learn how to cook
+ get a fake ID that says I'm 21
+ meet up with friends to say goodbye
Alright, let's get to it.

New laptop

I bought my new laptop today. And wow, is it a sweet-ass machine.
It's a Toshiba Satellite. Intel Centrino PentiumM 1.73GHz, 1 GB memory, 80 GB hard drive, 15.4" screen, thin and sleek. Basically, it's everything that I need and want, I love it.

My desktop has served me very well until now, but I really do need a laptop in California. My dad owns a Toshiba, which he's had for the last 6 years, and it's still working fine! I'm sure mine will endure just as long.

Actually.... now that I think about it, I never officially announced it on this blog. I will indeed be going to Actel in California for the year-long PEY internship. After that mishap in the first round of interviews, I landed another position with them in the second round as the Verification and Validation Intern.

Preparations have been well underway, such as the TN visa application in Buffalo, which turned out to be a good hour's worth of stories, much to my annoyance at the time for the amount of precious clocks it took out of studying for my first couple exams. Speaking of which, I'm almost done, just one more. Wednesday at 9pm, that's my 'Saved by the Bell'. But having this luscious new laptop sit here on my desk next to the work doesn't help very much.

Two for the price of one

V for Voluptuously-awesome

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having"

I saw V for Vendetta tonight, and it totally blew me away. The film was great on so many levels. An amazing storyline, tons of action, politically charged, a real message underneath, and a super hot chick; what more can you ask for? Watching in IMAX made it even better.

credit: legofish.com

Facebook fasting

I'm going to try an experiment. For one full week, that is between Mon. Mar. 27 - Sun. Apr. 2, I am NOT going to use Facebook. No wall-writing, no messages, no friend-confirmations, no stalking, no nothing.

It'll be a cool challenge to test my self-control. I have 6 important interviews this week, so what better time than now. I did the 30-Hour Famine a couple years back, but I have the feeling this will be even harder than that. MSN Messenger, you're next.

Skule Nite 0T6

Another awesome year of the Skule Nite show! I saw it yesterday and I'd say it was well worth the $10 and 3 hours of my afternoon. I pity the fool who missed it. Hilarious as always. Although I did think it had a bit too many penis jokes. It wasn't like last year's "one-giant-story", but rather a series of sketches that commented on/connected with previous ones in small ways, which was a nice touch. The musical numbers were great too, especially the Indian one.

I went with a non-engineering friend, and I'm not sure exactly how much of the jokes she actually got. The more funny ones were general enough for everybody, but an inside-joke is always a good laugh. Another great thing about it is seeing your friends and the people you know on stage. Their hard work really showed. Great job guys!

End post with one of the funniest skits:
"I speak 18 languages: C, C++, Perl, Python, .. Polish, reverse Polish....
so if you equals equals interested,
call me ... "

p.s. thanks for the Godiva chocolates Elena!

The holiest iPod in the world

I thought this was really cool.

The Pope just got a 2GB iPod nano; preloaded with the Vatican podcasts. Who knew they made weekly podcasts? and the fact that the Pope, who stands for conservative and all traditional views, would have an iPod is pretty funny and awesome at the same time. I wonder what his playlist is like ....

Good to see him join the party with the exlusive list of big-time 'celebrities' like George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth who also own iPods.

Go Canada Go!

Wow, Canada did so well at Torino 2006. 24 medals? that's crazy. w00t!

Pretty much all of Reading Week, I sat and watched the Olympic games. I was definitely not disappointed, and the entertainment value was extremely high. My family just completely stopped everything we were doing when the figure skating finals were on. Of course, a little disappointment from the men's hockey side, but wayyy overshadowed by everything else that was accomplished.

Proud of the Canadian athletes and proud to be a Canadian. Go Canada Go!

Spoke too soon

I guess my celebration was premature. It turns out I did not get offered to the Actel position after all. After talking to the manager and his team twice on the phone, an interview, and an informal breakfast later, along with the verbal confirmation, in person, that I would be offered the job, it still wasn't official...

I called the manager immediately after the rankings were released and his explanation was that after much debate amongst the team, they decided to switch their decision last minute to someone else. Of course, I was totally devastated. What hurts most is, he told me so early on that I was guaranteed the position, that I practically failed the other interviews I had lined up on purpose. And I totally stopped looking for other jobs altogether. I mean, if he wasn't so positive about it, then I would have been more cautious and gave a damn about the remaining interviews. It would have definitely turned out differently. I suppose it's my fault also for letting my guards down.

Another disappointment is the fact that the rankings were due by the company a full week ahead of time before they were released to the students. So the manager changed my status on the position and didn't even inform me about it. Hence, I was lead to believe a lie for an entire week between the time he submitted the decision to the time it was released. I guess California really is the home of shattered dreams.

Now that I've had a week to digest this, I'm over it and holding a more positive attitude. The next round of job postings and interviews is starting and I hear there are a LOT more coming out this round, around 300 - 400. With that big of a number, there's gotta be some high quality positions I can set sights on.

California, here I come!

*cue in The OC song*

We've been on the run
Driving in the sun,
Looking out for #1.
California here we come
Right back where we started from

Back at the beginning of the year (last September), I thought to myself "Man, wouldn't it be sooo awesome to live in California?". I kept dreaming of it since then, but never really gave a thought that it would actually happen, so soon.

Well, PEY has given the me chance to do exactly that. I've been doing interviews all this month, for 12-16 months internships for next year. I had 3 with ATI, and another 3 so far with Actel. Actel is a FPGA company located in Mountain View, right in the heart of Silicon Valley. To my honest surprise, Actel really likes me, and wants to hire me. The Sr. Manager of Technology Development likes my interest and enthusiasm and sees it as a great fit in their department. We spoke in three different occasions so far, and yesterday he gave me an offer. And I love the position! Of all the ones I applied for, this is the one that's perfect for me. It's in the Flash Technology Development, in which I would help in the design of their Flash device, which is the main product out of Actel.

More details will surely come, but right now, I'm extremely happy and thankful for this opportunity. Think about all the experience I'll gain at Actel and the fun I'll have in California. I'm super excited! Can't wait.

iHeart my iPod collection

*Droolz*

Liver damage report, stat!

It's been a pretty long while since I posted an entry. This would be my first since starting the new term. As you might have guessed, I have been quite occupied. But not in the sense I usually tend to use that word. I can actually say many non-academic things have been on my plate in the last little while. I feel like this will turn into a long entry, so I'm gonna make the reading somewhat easier by highlighting the main theme of the paragraph.

Ok so, let's see.... first week back to Skule was Godiva Week (ERTW!). It was hella fun, especially the Chariot Race. I missed a couple of the big events, but I still managed to hang out in the Atrium so much that I drank for 6 days in a row; something I've never done before. Don't get me wrong, the amount consumed each day wasn't big, but by the end I was beat!

The second week was burned up entirely by interviews. I had 3 interviews with ATI for various 16 months PEY positions. All 3 positions are hardware ASIC related. I'm actually surprising bad at these interviews. This came as a real shock to me, but I really suck at answering technical questions, under the spotlight. My inability to correctly solve simple questions really jabbed my confidence, and ultimately now my chances of landing the job. I have a few interviews with Actel this coming week, so hopefully I will do much better.

This past Saturday was UTEK (University of Toronto Engineering Kompetition). I chose to help in organizing this event. Our team of 9 had to go through grueling 8am meetings every week since Sept. to sleepless last-minute preparations, all to hold this one-day annual event. To sum the day up, it was hectic as hell and many things could have gone a lot smoother. In the end, it was a success. I feel quite bad for Rob, the chair of UTEK. The night before, he had to change a flat tire at 2am in the raining morning; during the day of, he lost his laptop which contained 3 years worths of work that wasn't backed up, and Jose's wallet was stolen too; and to top it off, he practically emptied his bank account in preparation for this (which will be reimbursed of course). However, our big feast afterwards paid-for by the Alumni office, made all the grumbling and the stress worth it. Good times that night.

Last but not least, my school work. This term has been quite easy-going. So far, my hands haven't done the dirty business with my textbooks yet, and I've been wasting an incredible amount of time watching season 1 of ROME. Wow... that show is sooo good, I can honestly say: the best dramatic TV series, ever.

I will try to update my blog more often, so as to not make such a big void in my archives.

A new term

So tomorrow starts another term. The 3rd year Spring term. After a 2 and a half week break, I feel ready and excited to go back now.

The downer is last term's marks are posted and boy, are they disgusting. The lowest average ever since coming to university. I was expecting low marks, but still, to actaully see it scripted in my record, it's a different story. And I just realized how much this will hurt my chances of admission into grad school. When applying next year, the marks they'll look at is obviously the 3F and 3S terms.

Therefore, this means I must perform almost flawlessly this time to balance last term's Quasimodo of a mark. I do feel this term looks easier than last. The courses sound interesting and I'm excited for another run at Skule. Here's my timetable:

Happy New Year!

May 2006 bring everyone happy times and lots of blessings.