Brian's World

Anti-Likes

This blog will be about things I dislike.  If I was a fan of internet meme type things, I could say “Do Not Want,” however I prefer to communicate using my own special version of english.

I dislike it when The Poly doesn’t endorse candidates.  As a result, I am not endorsing The Rensselaer Polytechnic as a legitimate source for campus information and opinion… that would be the act of negatively endorsing.. not just avoiding the issue like they do.  Sure, the decision might be hard… and they’ll have to communicate with the winner, even if they didn’t endorse him/her which might be awkward… but if they are going to be in the business of endorsing people than they should do so.  If they are in the business of offering biased opinion in response to an interview than they should change their model to that, a more accurate reflection of what they’ve done the past 2-3 years.  This lack of endorsement gives me the sensation that The Poly feels neither candidate will do a good job, and that maybe I’d be better writing someone in.  I am unsure how familiar The Poly staff is with the job of GM and Student Government at RPI.  Historically speaking their ed/op articles on the subject have been terribly slanted and I view them as slightly out of touch.  No, I can’t say that I’m in the SGS 24/7, nor have I attended every minute of ever senate meeting ever, but I do my darnedest to be informed as to what is going on whereas they opt to make up the rest of the story.  I have hope that some day The Poly will write something positive about Student Government at RPI.  Despite the many failures of student government at RPI over the year, there have been a few success, which tend to go untouted outside the Top Hat column.

I dislike it when candidates running for office cite being in the “Web Tech Group” as a qualification for office.  While I think that the members of the WTG running for office are well informed people and it shows campus involvement, being in a group responsible for making websites isn’t the reason why they are informed or extra qualified for the job.  I would cite an involvement with student government or the senate.. not a distant adgency.. possibly remarking on a specific area or two that one is familiar with.  It would look very dumb if I wrote “Can write PHP, RoR, and HTML” as a qualification for Senator…  maybe if I was hoping to be CIO again I would do that.. but Senator? really?  I think back to some of the top Senator’s I’ve seen over the years, and I have trouble citing anyone who has been effective at office because they were good with computers.

I dislike it when candidates hope to better “use” the WTG to fight the campus communication battle.  Last time I checked, none of us were robots or tools that could be “used.”  As the CIO, I report to the Senate and could therefore be responsible for projects from the Senate, but at no point am I required to pass off projects the group because it has been said.  The WTG tends to do its own thing, with a strategically-ill-defined adgenda that overlaps a few broad areas that the Senate Student Governemnt is interested in.  If I have the pleasure to be CIO next year, I look working to working with the elected people to figure out what we can do to help.  I do not look forward to being used by an elected person to communicate something because they said so.  I actually don’t think this is an issue, as its likely a poor choice in words and not reflective of a mentality… never the less, I can dislike it.

People who untag themselves from photos that they are clearly in are also commiting a practice I dislike.  I won’t untag myself from a photo unless I am actually not in the photo… like when my iLife identifies me instead of my brother… a legitimate mistake which I should correct.  I guess I could be embarassed about the photo or fearful some employer might find it one day and be like “hark!  what are you doing in that photo?  remind me again why I should hire you?”  Personally, I minimize my engagment in things that I’m not comfortable being documented.  Take photos of me all the time I’m in public for all I care… you need not consult me.  If I don’t want to be documented, I’ll creatively hide from the photo, such that I cannot be identified or I’ll adjust my behavior to something I am comfortable being documented in… you shouldn’t have to adjust your picture taking efforts to me.  If you are embarassed about a photo taken of you maybe you should rethink what you’re doing… not the photo.

Traditionally, I’ve been in support of people doing moderately illogical things if they help to achieve a longer term logical goal.  Learning their is no longer term logical goal invalidates my support of the illogical behavior and I will reclassify it as a waste of time.  That said, its too bad more people didn’t have longer term goals or committments in life at a young age.  As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, there was a pretty well defined long term goal sequence (and by long term I mean like 6-8 years).  Academia doesn’t present these sort of long term committments unless you’re a faculty member, at which point you can go really really long term.  Looking around at students I think that people are unwilling to stick with something.  Its not that they are necessarily going to change and move on to something else, but rather people seem unwilling to settle down and accept a burden.  While life can be quite dynamic, there are many things that aren’t really going to change, and in my effor to better society in some way, I am interested in doing my part to help out with the more stable things… in whatever capacity I can.  Be it today, tomorrow, or 4 years from now.

Commonly Accepted Limits and Bounding Conditions

First off, I would like to share a few thoughts unrelated to today’s thesis.

1. I like the new Facebook layout, however I dislike their data streaming methods.  I’ve found the activity streams to generally be outdated and too slow to update.  Manually surfing facebook yields data indicating that people are in fact writing on walls, posting photos, editing their profile yet my frontpage’s activity stream presents none of this information.  Ok, that was a lie.  It presents this information from about 3 days ago.  I go on facebook usually to see things that are occuring in realtime or close to realtime, not for this historical take on things that I’ve missed.  Twitter doesn’t show me what is happening 3 days ago unless there has been an absence of activity, and if facebook is going to go with that model they need to make it work better.
2. Social networks should tell me the extent to which I am someone’s friend.  Every network now lets you hide things from different people, controlling how much of your activity they can see.  Its a completely legitimate feature and I’m not saying it should be done away with… I would just like to know when I’m not your complete friend.  Take a family member as an example, I can opt to suppress them from seeing when I post some photos or something on Facebook and that person would never be for the wiser as it currently stands.  I think that they should be able to see on my profile or page or whatever something indicating that they are blocked from my picture section.  When I’m blocked from something on a social network without knowing it I think 2 things.  1) The website is broken and for some reason that link isn’t working or 2) the person didn’t want to deny me their friendship because that would be rude and we do in fact know each other however I must be an untrustworthy person, which makes me feel sadish… actually more left out but whatever.
3. I am preparing a post some changes that I’ve noticed to vending machines at RPI, particularly the one in my dorm.  I am working on the diagrams in PowerPoint (since it can draw rectangles) and will have them prepared in a short period of time.

Now onto the meat of today’s discussion.

I like to tell myself that I live by a certain code.  It’s an unwritten code that changes from time to time depending on how I’m feeling, but generally it stays pretty much the same.  Some of the more static components include the avoidance of alcoholic beverages and illegal drugs.  The more dynamic components tend to involve things like interpersonal relations, exercise, average driving speed, etc.

Most people tend to classify my driving as slow.  I don’t know why this is.  On highways I tend to average +5 MPH above the speed limit, which is by definition “faster” that I should be driving.  On the rare instance I am feeling luck, you will find me going +7 MPH above the speed limit.  On MA highways that is like 72 MPH, which is 24x the speed at which most people walk.  Out of respect for others I remain in the right lane such that I can be easily passed by the impatient driver who is going faster than my already fast driving.  Yes, sometimes you’ll find me in the passing lane; but only when I am about to pass someone or have calculated that I would need to pass someone within the next 2-3 minutes.  Passengers of mine (in the rare event that someone else is with me) commonly complain or remark on the fact that I could be going faster.  I think liittle of it, but find myself wondering why everyone else is going so darn fast.  If everyone else was going at the speed limit like 65 that I would be certainly be viewed as a fast driver any passengars I did have.  I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go below the speed limit.  Kind of dangerous to think about, right?  What if I only went 60 in a 65.

The nice thing about driving on the highway is you rarely encounter the people that pass you when you reach your destination.  I imagine things would be quite different if, upon arriving to a destination, someone was there to inform me that they made it here first or that they had outperformed me on the highways.  Almost equally as strange would be if someone held up a sign in the window (presumably by a passenger) reading “Look at me, I am passing you’.

While I’ve never experienced those things driving on the highway, I experience them all the time in other areas of my life.  Its not that people show off the behavior/action that some classify as superior, but rather the simple distribution of knowledge.  If I won the lottery I would probably write a blog about it and twitter if.  If I won the lottery every day I don’t think I would, that would be mean/cruel to other lottery players out there.  Following the same logic, I recommend that people examine what they expect as normal and tone it down a few notches.  Personally I think its normal that people don’t carry a bad odor.. however in the event that someone does I don’t state “I showered yesterday, you should have”.. rather I just think to myself that not everyone cares about not smelling like garbage which reduces on a larger scale to “different strokes for different folks.”  As a correlary to that, I suggest people take to ensure their strokes cause little offense to others.

I’ve long accepted the fact that in certainly areas I deliver sub standard performce.  Those areas might include knot identification, things that involve other people, verbal communication, relationships, and design to name a few.  Technology has enabled people to share stuff faster and broader than ever before and I sometimes find it hard to stay optimisitic in an enviroment where people can, so quickly, passively assault me with indicators of their triumph.  *DING* That looks like a clove hitch.  *DING* Pictures with my friends *DING*  Enjoying my spring break *DING*.  Sure, I am glad to hear that things in your life are going well, your sucesses are clearly of unmeasureable magniture and greatness.  While these certainly are not direct cases of bragging in the common sense, they do little to help others who are less skilled.  For example, instead of simply stating that one sucessfully identified a knot, one could provide information to help others.  Instead of just posting that you are having a super spring break, data could be provided to help others enjoy their spring break… for example instead of  “Just saw a great movie” you could say “Just saw Watchmen, it was awsome, definately check it out.”  While I still might be like pfft, I haven’t seen a movie in months, I am at least informed as to which movie I should consider seeing.

I see little reason to hide secrets to success in life, unless your success is built off the failure of others (in which case you are a lousey person).  I do my best to share what I do that works and what doesn’t work… with a heavy focus on what doesn’t work.

Time to stitch 4 buttons back onto some pants.

Planning Ahead

I did a really poor job shaving this morning, my face has been extremely uncomfortable for the past hour or so. I look forward to doing a good job tomorrow morning!

Its that time again, time to figure out what I’m doing next fall. I have a conceptual problem with everything I need to do, because I haven’t figured out whats going on this summer and I try to take things one step at a time. Summer would be the next step after Spring, not Fall. What is this, some kind of funny dance?

I have to squat my room tomorrow so that I can live in it again next year. There is nothing particularly special about this room, but there is nothing super wrong with it either. I considered living off campus for about 4 minutes, after which I decided it was probably not in my best interests. I enjoy the ability to run away from people/problems/things and go somewhere that I can be alone (or with complete strangers who don’t associate with me.. so its like being alone) and I’ve found that living in a single in the basement of BARH here @ RPI does a provides an adequate space for that. Living off campus would likely place me in close proximity to other people who I knew, making it harder for me to escape from any potential situations that might arise. I also like being lonely in my room sometimes… other times I like to pretend the people in the study room across the hall care about my existence even thought that is never true.

Since I’m squatting a room, and since that room is in BARH, I am required to have a dining plan. The choices are not really super for me. I would like a meal plan that enables me to eat 3 meals a day on 3-5 days a week, and 2 meals a day on the other days. Then I wouldn’t feel bad eating something from the Union, which is not covered by any meal plan. My choices are to eat as much as I want from 7:30am – 3:00pm for ~$1650/semester or to eat as much as I want from 7:30am – 7:30pm for ~$2500/semester. Its a tough call, as I enjoy the convenience of having Commons available for a quick dinner before a Senate meeting or something at 5:00, but I also can’t say that I eat 21 meals there a week. I don’t know how many weeks there are in a semester, but I’ll use the number 17 for my math. Lets say I eat 3 meals a day in a dining hall 4 days each week, that means I miss around 51 meals each semester. Assume an average cost per meal of $7 (2500/(17*7*3)). By not eating 2 meals in the dining hall each week, I am loosing $357 a semester. Honestly I was expecting that number to come out higher, and I suspect I’m doing a very poor job estimating how many meals I consume per week in a dining hall. Too bad I couldn’t access the accounting of this sort of stuff. See I really wish I could do this per meal like some colleges, where you are allocated N meals per week.. or even a declining balance idea. Then I could only buy 15 meals/week or something and use them as I want. That would cover the days I choose to eat lunch elsewhere but eat dinner in the dining hall.

I am actually taking a different approach to some of the math right now. I need decide if dinner is worth 736.5/semester.

Thats only one of the issues to decide on. Technically I don’t have to decide for a long time, but if I say something tomorrow I get $50 free ‘Bonus Bucks’, which is incentive to make a decision. The other issue is the registering for classes next semester.

There is this requirement here at RPI that you meet with your academic advisor before registering for classes… they’ve implemented it in the registration software so you can’t get around it. I’m not opposed to having someone to review my academic and provide any advice they had… I think it could be a really useful experience. Of course the current implementation (at least for me) hasn’t been useful at all. I’ve gotten a new advisor each year I’ve been here and I’ve never met with any one advisor more than once. There is great continuity going on here you can tell.

So I emailed my new advisor to see if he was available for a meeting anytime this week, where I was told to come to his office hours today. I did, showing up 15 minutes after his hours started… someone was already in there with him and there was someone waiting outside so I figured I would be there for like 10 minutes max. I took a seat on the floor a small distance away when another kid showed up and stole my place in line. Big deal, my wait has been extended to 15 minutes. Ha! I wish. I waited there until for 50 minutes for him to get to me in line but it was still not my turn… I was next. The line had grown by 1 student, but I had to dash off to turn in a lab for web system @ 4. I got back to the queue area by 4:16 and the line now had 5 new students in it, just what I neglected to take into account. Everyone getting out of a 2-4 class would be showing up now. I figure the guy has got to notice the bulk of students waiting for advisement, so he should speed the process up or something… nope! I waited an additional 45 minutes, during which he got through 3 students, at which point the designated hours ending.. leaving me + 2 others to figure something else out. I emailed him, explaining how the queue was too long, but he’s unavailable tomorrow and Friday, so I’ve got to wait until Monday to meet with him.. the same day I can register for classes. Hopefully he tell me there is a bulk time for everyone again.. if he does I may camp out in the JEC early so I can get in there without having to wait so long.

Mainly I dislike how I wasted 1.5 hours waiting around today.