Brian's World

Smalltalk

This post will be brief.  I am presently 20 minutes late to bed, so I will be 20 minutes + writing time late to bed when I finish this post.  The beginning of June hasn’t been terribly eventful on most, if not all fronts.  I’ve been busy working on my project for RPI’s Center for Open Source Software, Bonsai Video.  You can track my progress updates at my blog for that project, http://vms.brispace.net.

One thing I have been thinking about is the future, and what it has in store.  Partially for me, for others, and for the world.  I remember sitting down at a Scoutmaster’s Conference with Mr. Roberts and he asked me what my aspiration was with scouting.  I always replied something along the lines of: After passing this and my Board of Review, I’ll probably be looking to the next rank… be it First Class, Star, Life, etc.  He would always prompt me in response with a question like “well, are you thinking about trying for Eagle [scout rank]” and I would always respond that my goal is going to be the next rank that I can get, and we’ll see where that gets me.  I won’t say that I’m poor at planning and thinking about the future, I’m usually just have too much stuff going on in the present to think far ahead.  I also dislike planning too far ahead, because then one early change in plans can mess your entire route up.

For example, I should be graduating RPI next May (2010) if all goes according to plan.  (The Web Tech Group has a notoriously low on-time graduation rate.. but I hope to beat that.)  I know I need to start figuring out what I’ll be doing after I graduate, but its not easy for me.  As I see it, I have 2 paths that I could look down, start a career sort or deal or further my education with something like a masters.  I’ve never been a super-huge fan of the whole education deal, because at some point I’d like to start actually using things that I’ve been taught learned… and I would prefer to do so before I’m too old; but I understand that seeking a masters degree may actually put me in a field and course of study with things that I do care about, and topics that are exciting to me.  Then again, if I can get a good job which can turn into a career.. or even not a career kinda thing, but something a little bulkier than an internship,  my educational experiences are less important.  It would be really neat (yet completely unlikely) if I had like a job offer and a grad school offer thing to choose from some point over the next year.  I don’t know if this “down” economy will or will not effect what I’m doing.  I like to think not, as more people are using computers than ever.

Sometimes I text message myself.