Happy 10th birthday, humble little blog!
I've been blogging for ten years. In Internet Dog Years, that's a full lifetime. When I first started:
-I was 16
-I had crushes on girls on the internet. (At least they were fellow bloggers!)
-I was playing Quake for roughly 10-15 hours a week and my clan was my life
-I posted totally silly inside jokes based on conversations with my best friends at the time. Interestingly, Aroon and Eric (both of whom I quoted extensively) are still in my life.
If you want to know what I was like as a teenager, or an early 20-something, the archives can be found below, or in the sidebar, based on whatever this site's design is like at the moment. The short version, though, is that I've changed very little. You can ask Aroon, Eric, or anyone else who's been in my life for that long.
So, I've come across some free time since I graduated back in June. But I haven't been prolific here. What gives?
Well, I'm in a state of transition. I've thought for a while I'd be starting on the next big phase of life, and at that point I'd start writing again. But here I am, one month and counting in flux. No sense in staying radio silent.
I uprooted myself from a comfy and happy life in San Diego, threw all my worldly possessions in the back of my car, and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Silicon Valley. That drive may have been the very first thing to go on my Bucket List way back when, so it was cool to accomplish something and cross it off the list.
So now I'm in Palo Alto, crashing on Aroon's couch and job searching.
I've talked to people privately about the job search, and a few have said that I should blog about my experiences. I wish I could. Unfortunately, blogging about these things publicly is an invitation out the door of the selection process. Even if I were to disguise companies or whatever, most HR 'drones' (my favorite word for low-level recruiters, courtesy an IR/PS alum) would find it distasteful of me to say that some anonymous recruiter was a total idiot or that some VP was a total dick, and it wouldn't be very informative to all of you.
An alternative would be to get a job and then spill the beans, but back in college I saw a good friend lose a summer internship over simply criticizing a product from the company that hired him. Internship rescinded via email. He hasn't blogged since, and that's a shame.
Like blogging about girls you have crushes on when you're 16, blogging about jobs you do or don't want is really nothing more than a way to jinx yourself.
But if you're curious about what's up, definitely drop me a line! I've had some really cool experiences alongside the 'blah' ones, so it's not all whining and lameness. Update: following a suggestion from the wonderous Katherine Fan, I've set up a Google+ circle to fill people in on everything: the good, the bad, and the tips.
Anyway! It's now 10 years and I've gone from high school to real world. Curiosity to cynicism, crushes to actual relationships. PC to Xbox 360, by way of the Gamecube. Depths of the South to my motherland of California. From quirky nerd who loves to laugh, to, well, quirky nerd who still loves to laugh.
It's been a fantastic 10 years! Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll stay with me for 10 more.