i’m too tired to elaborate more, but i wanted to at least write something. i’ve written countless posts, only to discard them because i was too tired to finish them. so i’ve condensed my thoughts into short snippets. some of which are resolutions others just random ideas.
1. everything happens for a reason. personally, i’m more inclined to think; things happen. things seem to happen not for a reason, but because of one more many reasons.
2. i remember my last day as an intern, one of my mentors said to me: “if you make a mistake, admit it, own up to it, and fix it.” he was talking about work obviously, but it fits in all aspects of life. somehow, today, his words seem more profound.
So today started the Buy one Get one at Starbucks to promote all of their holiday drinks. After lunch with Billy, I made sure to go to Starbucks so I could bring one back for my mom. So I went in, and got one grande dingerbread latte and one peppermint mocha. As soon as I went outside, I saw this…
today i went on a interview for a CMS support position. honestly, i didn’t have much interest in the position itself but decided to get some interview experience. i want to become a system/network engineer. being able to conceptualize, design and implement a companies IT infrastructure is such an awesome idea to me. anyways, the position mostly entailed tier 2 CMS support. basically, i would make sure people that are using the product are able to do everything the product is intended to. it could range from checking the SQL server and reviewing code logic to a basic password reset. regardless, it was a position heavily focused on the software side. to be frank, i thought this was going to be an easy interview. i was wrong.
i was interviewed by 2 groups of three people, then the VP. these interviews were no joke. i went through case based scenarios trying to solve problems, and was asked questions that i never even thought to really consider. for example, what’s the difference between XHTML and HTML? i’ve done a little bit of web development but i never really questioned the difference the two. the only noticeable things were syntax. some older tags were removed and replaced to supplement better coding practices. but actually there are a BUNCH of difference that effect your site. here is a general excerpt of i took from a site giving a basic explanation (http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/htmlxhtml).
The most important difference between the two markup languages is that HyperText Markup Language, or HTML, is an application of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language),1 and allows an author to omit certain tags and use attribute minimization.2 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, or XHTML, is an application of XML (Extensible Markup Language).3 It doesn’t permit the omission of any tags or the use of attribute minimization. However, it provides a shorthand notation for empty elements—for example, we could use <br/> instead of <br></br>—which HTML does not. A conforming XML document must be well formed, which, among other things, means that there must be an end tag for every start tag, and that nested tags must be closed in the right order.4 When an XML parser encounters an error relating to the document’s well-formedness, it must abort, whereas an HTML parser is expected to attempt to recover and continue.
There are three areas in which the differences between HTML and XHTML affect our use of CSS:
case sensitivity
optional tags
properties for the root element
least to say, the interview was extremely tough. oh yeah, it didn’t help the fact i accidentally put PHP in on my resume when in fact i haven’t done anything with server side scripting (so embarrassing!).
my point is, it was a humbling experience. it taught me a lot of valuable lessons. for one thing i need to make sure my resume reflects what i know (i swear it was an honest mistake!!). most importantly, i learned what the difference between XHTML and HTML.. haha, sike. but in all seriousness, i know and realize now the importance of being a great listener. when i say great listener; i don’t mean listening to your friends dilemma on what to eat for dinner. but, rather listening with the intent to learn and actively engaging; not so much verbally but by means of incorporating what you know, with the questions and topics you’re discussing. i’d like to continue this post but i have a 10 AM class and in dire need of some sleep. good night!
This is a true story of Mother’s Sacrifice during the China Earthquake. After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange that she knelt on her knees like a person was worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting by an object. The collapsed house had crashed her back and her head.
With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescuer team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure. He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement,” A child! There is a child! “ The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up. The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Every body that read the message wept. ” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such is the mother’s love for her child!
I read this article on the front of myUMBC about a person’s experience with the word: “Faggot”
It was the middle of the afternoon and I was walking across the quad from the Public Policy building to the library to return a book with a friend of mine. She and I were…
before i delving into the grunt of this entry, i wanted to update my ultimate career status! so i decided to play for a mixed team called sidecar and aim for my dreams of nationals next year. i’m really busy with work/school/family so i decided i should wait until next year when i can really devote myself to my dream.
anyways, i’m really happy with the decision and i love the people that i play with! they’re so welcoming and supportive that it reminds me why i love the sport so much. the game of ultimate it self is so fun, but honestly the people that tell you “great catch” or “awesome throw” really epitomize the most important aspect of the game; the spirit (friendship/sportsmanship/etc.).
moving onto the theme of the night; perception. well, i guess it isn’t really the theme, but rather the only word that could really sum up the collection of thoughts i had. in some ways, this word is completely irrelevant, but in other cases it could be viewed as the main character of a broadway show (random analogy i know, i had recently watched glee haha). i feel like i’m running off on a tangent here so i’m going to try and get back to the main point(s).
i started to notice things. they’ve probably caught my attention at some point or another, but inevitably, the idea would fade. the first statement to this paragraph is vague and arbitrary, but “it is what it is”.
***tangent***
i think that statement is an idiom, but i’m not sure. it’s used as a reference to a state of being, so how would it be classified? this is going to bug me. bah, i’ll google it later.
***tangent end***
when i say say “i started to notice things”, i guess i mean to say; i’m growing up? maybe i’m just getting old? honestly i’m not sure. maybe it’s a feeling of indifference? perhaps, it’s just confusion, or just the giant pile of mcdonalds i had during finals week. what ever it is; it is changing my perception.
i don’t care about the next party to go to. i worry about my dad going to korea for the next 3 months. i don’t care about the next suit of armor i get once i hit level 46/reach the 250 strength requirement. i think about the next day of work, and the giant pile of emails i’ll have to read. don’t get me wrong, i love going to parties, i love getting a new set of armor, but in the end; it’s not that important.
i’ve come to realize (even more so) how petty the she said, he said, you did, i didn’t, game truly is. don’t let arguments that aren’t worth 2 seconds of your time consume you. what’s more important, who’s right? or your relationship with your sister/brother/dad/friend/girlfriend? one of my boys likes to live his life just “straight chillin’”, and honestly, that’s how i do, yo! “chillin’” as in.. don’t let the nonsense of erroneous subjects prevent you from doing the things you need and want (chillin’ has no relationship with lazy in this sense of the word).
anyways, this is just one of the 75 ideas rolling around my brain. however, i have to wake up in 5.5 hours, so to bed i go!
summer is fast approaching, and that means working, parties, becoming super-mega-brown, and above all else, club ultimate season!! some people may not understand it, but club ultimate is basically the highest level of play you can achieve in the sport of ultimate frisbee. you could compare it to the NBA, or NFL (in terms of level). i was lucky enough to receive invitations to come and tryout for four different club teams this year. i’ve pretty much narrowed it down to two primary choices, and this is where the fork in the road shows up.
club ultimate is divided into 4 primary divisions. club open, club mixed, club women, and the masters league. open allows anyone of any gender to play but is predominately (if not all) men. club mixed is pretty straight forward. there is a mix of men and women; generally split 4-3 respectively. women is…. well women; and masters is for those 35 years of age and above i believe.
anyways, i was invited to tryout for a mixed club team and an open club team. both of which will undoubtedly make me a better player. however, making a decision this time around is a lot more difficult. so, the mixed team has amazing people. everyone is friendly and has great sense of spirit (honesty and sportsmanship). you learn, you play hard, and you have fun. not only that, you get to play with beastly ultimate frisbee girls. oh, you can throw a 60 yard backhand huck? that is HOT. basically it’s a team i would get guaranteed playing time and above all else fun.
by comparison, the open team is extremely competitive and they make serious cuts based on performance and overall skill (not that the mixed team doesn’t). but, in general this is a much more serious and intense team. i played with this team a bit last year and found myself on the the sidelines a lot. i practiced just as hard as anyone else, and performed just as well as anyone else. but like all teams, everyone has favorites or “go to” teammates. basically, i got no playing time.
logically i should play with the mixed team. but, there is a huge factor influencing my decision. that decision is club nationals. club nationals is the mother of all tournaments, the mac to your cheese, the tum to your blr; it is my dream. our region has 4 bids to nationals. nearly every year the open team has placed 4th at regionals. basically it means, the likelihood of going to club nationals is very high. this essentially means, i could go to nationals. i could honest to goodness fulfill my dream of going to nationals. not to just watch, but to play, and to compete for the title of national champions.
i’d like to go more indepth with this but i have class and work tomorrow. so i’ll continue another time.
