The quote unquote “real world” is a great instructor in terms of free-time. It has really taught me in some time about how much free time I have had in college and that I never really utilized it. For example, I thought I was almost too busy because I was not only a full-time student, but I was also in a business fraternity, business organization, held part-time jobs, and more.

The beauty of college is that everything is spread out. If you can figure out ways to patch those hours in between your active hours you can really become productive in various ways. Below I have included five suggestions that I have found helpful over the past two years:

• Try waking up before 9am. It adds to your energy and ability to produce. Can’t wake up early? Try going to bed before midnight and maintain a consistent schedule of productivity.

• If you have an hour before class, don’t walk all the way back to your dorm or apartment. Find a productive place near where your class begins next and get to work on some tasks that need completion. Possible suggestions could be computer labs or student dedicated centers.
• Stop spending too much time on certain tasks. A lot of times we study too much for exams or drive the point into the ground in hopes that it will only make us better. Unfortunately, it mostly just wastes useful time.
• Make use of the time you create by implementing these habits. It wouldn’t hurt to use some of the free time to refocus or take a breather from the day’s activities.
• Use a planner! This may sound like a no-brainer, but the effective use of a planner isn’t as simple as you would think. Take a week, log what you use your time for. Adjust it accordingly to see how much you can squeeze out of your time in a given day.

Well, the vacation was great but now it is time to get back to work. Boy do I have a lot to cover in this installment!

Last week I was 6 hours north of Independence in Carlise, PA. Why go there you ask? It’s the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals! I’m a huge car enthusiast, especially since I grew up the son of a die-hard Ford supporter, automotive technician, and have been around Fairlanes and Mustangs since I was in diapers. With that being said, it’s a no-brainer as to why I was at this large event.

Camping out was a fun time and selling parts was just as much fun also. The only complaint I really had about the whole week was the 90-degree weather. That wasn’t so bad though, the nights were comfortable and I found a few integral pieces to complete my complete rebuilt of my baby - my 1985 Mustang 5.0 GTX (GT/LX for those that are confused) Convertible (project starting soon!).

On to other notes - I will start training for Results, a company that is apart of XM Satelite Radio. I’m very excited about my new position and I expect to see a lot of growth in the company if things work accordingly.

For those interested, here are a few photos from my trip to PA:

Low and behold, posts will slow down for the next few days.

I will be leaving town either Friday night or Saturday morning to attend a few summer carshows. For those of you that know me, I grew up in the industry and it has always been a huge part of my summer. I will be at the following:

• Carshow at the Park - Galax Va
• Carlisle - All Ford Nationals - Carlisle PA

I will return Monday, June 4th. Expect a lot of photos from the shows!

I might be on an edge by even giving this attention, my input, or other media coverage. I do feel though this is an important subject and I would like for those of you to read through this blog before making any judgements at all.

I was scoping Newgrounds.com today and I ran across a game that really caught my attention. Unfortunately, the game itself isn’t one I’d recommend to others. It seems as though someone has tried to exploit the events of April 16th at Virginia Tech (just a mere 12 minutes from my home in Radford) through a video game entitled simply “VT Rampage”.

At first my thoughts were simple - How could anyone be this tasteless?

So then I played the game. The creator literally programmed a flash game to “relive” the events. You are Cho, the relentless psychopath that looks to send a message to the world. Your first mission through the 1st stage is to shoot Emily Hilscher - the first victim in the actual events. Events then move on as you return to the dorm to film the manifesto tape. From there Cho must “stealthily” make it past a ward of police to drop the package off to the Post Office. From there is where “the fun begins”, as the creator puts it in Cho’s words.

Norris Hall is nothing more than a glorified bloodfest. You have a time limit to slaughter as many students as possible, even with a theme song playing in the background encouraging “Go Cho Go!”

At the end of the time limit, with 32 dead and various injured, Cho is left with only one choice - to take this life. The game ends there, with credits rolling in shortly afterwards.

Personally I am all for freedom of speech. What I am not for however is the right for people to be so distasteful. It is an outrage that this online game portrays the events, let alone NAMES one of the victims in the game and allows you to murder her. This is truly a lack of respect towards the victim!

With further research I see that the media has really picked this up and has even conducted an interview with the game’s creator - Ryan Lambourn. Turns out he’s a 21-year-old living in Australia, but grew up in the United States (credit - MSNBC). With that being said, Ryan should be able to connect since most of those killed were students HIS age. So why would someone still do such a thing?

It has also been stated that he will remove the game if the government pays him a price. Should the government fold and pay the “ransom”? How does this play into freedom of speech and freedom of the Internet?

Frankly, if the government pays to have the game removed, it will create a few scenarios in my opinion.

• By paying the ransom, you open the gateways for similar games. Oklahoma City Rampage anyone? So what will the government do then? Pay to have each game removed?
• By taking the game off, it takes away some of the freedom of the Internet. Should legislation be passed to limit what can be posted on the Internet? Who will be the judge of what is tasteful, politically correct, and eligible to be posted?

Either way, Ryan is getting exactly what he wants. He’s getting cheap press and has become highlight of chat through various media, including this blog. What he has done on the bright side has screwed any chance he had at becoming a respected professional in his field of work, let alone a respected human being.

Incase you’re interested, this video game can be found at www.newgrounds.com

While browsing through Yahoo I come across an article that really stood out and made a point. A big demographic in the business world is about to go missing in the next 30 years and its a big thing to look at. A current issue is immigration and its recent explosion.

Immigration itself could be the missing piece to the puzzle. Check it out, its - Good Life of Boomers Tied to Better Life for Immigrants.

Hey, I don’t get to say I have failed a lot. Bear with me!

As many of you have read recently, I have been interviewing with a popular technology based company here in the New River Valley. It has been an exciting process and much different than other hiring processes that I have been through in the past.

The news is - I didn’t get the job.

Some of you may be shocked. Some of you may have expected it from the start. I gotta say this - it was an eye-opening experience and is JUST the jump start I needed.

Today’s technology industry is VERY competitive and there are a lot of jobs tailored to specific areas. With this, I was going after the title “web developer” which to me sounded just like my ballpark. I was welcomed in-house for an interview after a few phone interviews and was on my way. Then, once in-house it was a whole different story:

• Web Development is just that - developing programs for the web
• Design and Development are two majorly different spectrums
• Design caters to USD - User Interface Design
• Development caters to making each module work
• Keep your mind sharp. I was given a test with logic answers. Tips or advice include:
• Be able to explain how you answer some things
• As a programmer, dabble in every language you can
• Please, under all circumstances, refresh your memory on syntax!!!!!
• Always bring a small notepad and pencil with you. It helps
• Brush up on brain teasers. These are becoming very popular in the job market

All in all, I may have not got the position. It has not though, detered me from wanting to work with the company in the near future. They really are onto something with their business model and truly care about their employees. This experience has given me incentive to improve upon and take a better interest into a sector of the web world that I have ignored somewhat over the years - true ground up scratch programming.

I got to say, the past week has been horrible for me because I have a crucial job interview coming up for a company I really want to work for.

Why should I be worried? My friends are confident I’ll nail the job. My family is just the same. For me though, I know this interview will drill me on my knowledge as a programmer. Honestly I would say programming is a weakness of mine, whereas my strong points are interface design, optimization, and being addicted to the field.

How can one build their confidence about situations such as this? I’ve found over the past few years is to look at what relevant events you’ve been through that tie to your career field. As a web developer/designer I have seen a lot. I’ve come a LONG way since my days of programming horrid looking web sites on Angelfire. I’ve come a long way since last year’s 1st place finish at the PBL NLC with Chris Pund (cheap plug, I know). My love for Web 2.0, aka the Semantic Web, was just taking off. From then to now, I must say that my PHP and MySQL understanding has increased tremendously and I have really gotten back into javascripting. I never really realized how important it’s features can be to stabilizing the user experience.

Where am I going with this? I’ve come a long way and I’m still improving everyday. I have the upperhand against most students my age, in my location at least just because of my passion and desire to improve. I love this industry and it doesn’t get any better than picking up something new.

You know, after thinking back on all of this - I should be worried afterall. I should just go, show them what I have to offer, and see how it goes from there.

It’s something else I can learn from :).

It seems as though in the past 6 months something in my brain has opened. It’s like a channel for understanding the logic of web programming has finally opened.

I just recently received two books in the mail that I ordered, Ajax Patterns and Best Practices (Expert’s Voice) and Ajax Design Patterns. I have read quite a bit of Ajax Design Patterns at McConnell Library at RU, so I have put most of my time today into Ajax Patterns and Best Practices. Both are great reads and helpful to those starting to implement AJAX. Some may not like a few of the stories that are included with Ajax Design Patterns. Look at it this way.. the stories are similar to real life problems. Who cares if they are true or not.

I’m really nervous I must admit about my phone interview with Webmail.us Monday. I’ll be interviewing with the Chief Software Architect, so everyone wish me luck!

Since the semester is now over, it provides the perfect time for me to return home to visit family. This time around, the trip home wasn’t to pleasant.

I drive a 2001 Focus SE, with a 2.0 DOHC that never gives me problems (these cars rock). I was on my way back to Grayson County, VA when my car immediately started over-heating and the check engine light came on. I quickly took an exit and found myself at an Exxon station with my car leaking anti-freeze faster than a school-girl leaking secrets.

Low and behold I found the problem rather fast - a torn hose. It was torn around the clamp. Simple enough - just unclamp, pull the hose tighter and reclamp.. right? WRONG.

Ford, what were you thinking by making a hose that has two different sizes on each end? I see why - considering the pipe coming out of the radiator is smaller than the chamber coming out of the engine. I’m sure theres a reason for it.. but it really makes things stressful when you try to fix a problem. I wish I knew why.. it seems to be a common trend with car companies these days.

Thankfully my father owns a rollback and I was able to get it hauled home (granted.. I had to wait from midnight till 7am in the morning due to phone issues).

I”ll leave it at yesterday just wasn’t my day.

Well, this week has been enough to say the least. Now, in a mere 40 minutes I will take my American Literature final exam. WHOO!

As for other news I will be interviewing with Webmail.us next week. I really hope this turns out well.

Also - out of boredom I scripted my own to-do list. Granted, Ta-da List already does this.. and I do use that quite a lot. The issue that popped out at me was that I personally didn’t always have time to boot up firefox and login to Ta-Da. Now, with my own little program I can boot it from my desktop via a flash interface and add away :). I will most likely post the code in the next few weeks once I touch up the visual pieces.

I will be out of town until Sunday night/ early Monday morning to visit family. If you need to reach me try the cell phone or e-mail.

Wish my luck, I’m off!