devmorgan.com

I have heard this word a lot lately. It partially explains why my writing has been more sporatic lately. So, for that, my apologies.

So. A few big things have happened in my life, some of which geekier than others. First things first: I’m engaged! This is very exciting, and well, pretty much awesome. For the record, I didn’t do anything too fancy, but I did do the one knee thing.

Now on to the geeky things! I have been working on a research project for about a year now, involving Data Mining and Data Warehousing. Dr. Jai Kang, his son, and I have written a paper based on the research, and it was accepted to a conference! In Italy! So, come May, I will be heading out to Milan to present the paper with Dr. Kang. Very exciting time indeed. I will likely make a copy of the paper available here after it is presented.

I am also working on my capstone. I am staying pretty quiet about it online right now, but I can tell you it will be really cool. It will involve a visualization, and will be available as a web application, and of course, I will allow access it from here.

I also have had several interviews, hopefully I’ll be getting a nice development job in the coming months.

I guess the long and the short of it is, I will be posting more soon I hope. I just need to catch up with everything that is going on in my life. So, until then, adios.

life, relationships, travel

Sure. I didn’t get this post up before Christmas. Big deal =P.

Happy Holidays to everyone. Right now I am spending some time in the Philadelphia airport waiting to catch my flight to head to Cincinnati. After that I’ll be heading to Boston for new years. I got a busy week ahead of me.

The point of this post is simple, last night I was asked to say grace at dinner for my family. What I said was simple: Lets be thankful for this past year. I did not mention any God, I did not mention any faith. I simply asked my family to reflect back on the past year and be thankful and proud of everything.

My family has two new members this year, one comes in the form of a canine that my dad loves to death, and the other is my nephew Cole. We have a lot to be happy about over the past year, and a lot going for us. I just want to remind everyone to take some time during this holiday season to think about the year and be thankful for what has gone well.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

life, travel

So, I have been wanting to blog more, but my recent traveling has been making that difficult. Right now I am in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is now my second trip to Vegas, and it really has been a good time. Last time I spent a lot more time gambling, this time I have spent a lot of time at shows and also a few moments at The Amazing Meeting 6. Although, I did enter my first Texas hold-em tournament today, and took 2nd place. Not to shabby!

In all this post is really just an minor update, and a prelude to more to come. I have a few comic ideas that I want to sketch out when I get back to Rochester, and also some topics I want to write about. So, my apologies about the lack of new content lately, but my summer has been a little hectic. I plan to be writing more when I get back from Vegas next week.

travel

It’s strange really. I never liked traveling anywhere when I was younger. In the past few years, I have traveled from coast to coast and enjoyed it. Sure, business travelers probably have a lot more experience than me, but, I wanted to share some advice that has made my traveling experiences much better.

Don’t travel with annoying people

For me, this means, don’t travel with family. I figured out after I got older that the reason I didn’t like traveling is because I traveled with family. Sure, I love my family, but, wow, being forced to spend X hours with them can get a little frustrating. This applies for all people that might rub you the wrong way. If you have a friend, but you don’t get along that great, it might not be the best idea to be stuck traveling with them.

Travel with a Friend

If you can, it is always fun to have someone to travel with. A good friend is a good choice. I have taken several trips with girlfriends, and I have taken several trips with friends from college. Usually things go great, and it’s always nice to have someone to hang out with. Only thing to keep in mind is to make sure you have plenty of opportunity to chill and do your own thing, it’s never fun feeling like you have to entertain someone when you don’t want to.

Talk with people

Meeting people is one of the most exciting things to do when traveling. I personally like chatting with business people on planes. Don’t be too talkative, but say hi, and ask where they are headed. Business or pleasure? Travel much? Ask a few small questions, if they seem like they enjoy chatting, keep talking, otherwise, put on your iPod. I met 3 distinctly interesting people in my trip to Cincinnati last week, and it wasn’t hard to do. I had a good time, and I think they enjoyed the conversation as well. Good stuff.

Make sure you won’t panic

The only other thing that has made traveling easy for me is knowing that if everything goes wrong, I’ll be ok. I usually make sure I have plenty of money in my checking account and my credit card paid off before traveling. If my car breaks down, I can pay to have it be repaired, or I can rent a new one. If my flight gets screwed up, I can buy a new ticket. Forgot my socks? Buy new ones. Knowing that you can cover any unexpected expenses and events helps in making sure you have a good time because you are less worried about them. Make sure your schedule is loose enough that if you are running late to something, you won’t be in trouble. The biggest problem I had with traveling with family is that my mother always schedules 500 things to do, and usually runs late to all of them… stressing herself and everyone else out. Remember to relax and enjoy traveling, not many people get to do it.

rambling, travel

So. In an attempt to keep myself occupied today during layovers and waiting in the airport, I’ll write about my graduation.

Why not, right?

So, I graduated… again. Of course, in true style, I still am not actually done with my grad degree. I still have a couple independent studies ahead of me and my capstone project. Alas this is nothing new, as I also “graduated” my undergrad degree early as well.

Anyway, I hate graduations. Why? Let me count the ways:

1. You have to say goodbye to friends.
2. You (usually) have to move.
3. You have to start thinking about the future.

Saying goodbye is never fun. A friend of mine wrote a note in facebook, asking the question: “Who would willingly spend several years of their life building a new group of friends and family in a place far away from home, and then at the end of those years, leave?” It’s a good question. I know the chances of seeing a lot of the people I saw every day ever again is quite low. Now it’s easier than ever to keep in touch, but like my old roommate, sometimes communication completely breaks down. It’s a damn shame, but it’s apart of life.

Moving sucks. Lets put that out there right now. In the past 2 years, I’ve moved six times. Six. Friggin. Times. Moving gives you some time to be nostalgic, going through the stuff in your life as you pack it all up. This time while packing up, I was remembering the parties and fun that had happened at the apartment… something that will not likely occur again to the same scope or scale. Oh well.

Now, I know we are supposed to think about our futures before we are walking across the stage for graduation, but once you shake the hands - its official (almost), you have to get a real job. I know in the fall I will be going back to StormFrog, but it’s always scary thinking about where you want to end up. Do I really want to be a code monkey all my life? Do I want to become more ‘business-y’ even if it means more money? Do I still want to end up in Boston? Who knows.

Well. Flight is about ready to board. Maybe I’ll write more or draw a comic on a layover.

education, friends, life, rambling, relationships, travel

I have been scheduling a bunch of flights for this summer.  This morning, I just scheduled one through US Airways because I had a flight voucher for them. I checked their website and discovered the voucher ($300) would cover the entire flight for me to travel to Dayton. So, as per the rules of the voucher, I made a call to their telephone reservation number.

I wasn’t even put on hold, and I got a real live person. That was refreshing.

So, I let the woman know what day I wanted to fly out, and I was flexible about the times of departing and leaving. I had the web window open so I could see all the prices, but I wanted to have her pick the flight. Perhaps I would get something cheaper then what was shown to me.

“Flight 7245 departing Rochester at 10:15am”. I gulped, knowing that the flight she mentioned was the most expensive on the list I saw.

“Flight 7745 departing Dayton at 6:10am”. I gulped again, knowing that was the second most expensive I saw in the list.

I held my breath as she “checked the prices”. There would be a difference in cost from my voucher of $734.

Yeah, right.

“I’m sorry, but that is not acceptable. I know for a fact I can get it cheaper on your website.”

“Ok sir, let me try again.”

I let her try again, this time the difference in cost was about $300. I told her no again, and now I let her know I could see all the flights and costs, and listed off the flights I would like.

“Ah sir! Much cheaper! It looks like you can get this trip for free!”

“Awesome. I’d like to book it please.”

So. The moral of the story. Telephone reservations suck. Chances are they are going to give you the most expensive flights possible, so make sure you have the web interface in front of you with the lower cost flights… or at very least know the flight numbers you want to be on.

rambling, travel

After spending a few days in Boston - and more importantly, spending a few minutes at home resting after the long ride back - it’s time to write about the trip! Overall it was an excellent experience… it was nice to see a few of my friends that are living out in Boston, and it was also nice to bring a few of my friends out there with me to experience First Night!

Read more…

booze, friends, life, travel

I don’t really want to write much right now.. but.. happy new year!!! Will write more about this in the full write up when I get back to Rochester. We haven’t decided if we are going to leave tonight or tomorrow morning. We’ll see.

travel

Boston was pretty awesome today - except for when I fucked up plans with Jay (which got fixed)…

I was able to hang out with Morgan! We went to a bar and grill for lunch and saw the new National Treasure movie (overall, the movie was alright).

I also got to see Jay - after a serious snafu that I feel really bad about! Next time I will be sure to do a better job of communication with everyone when we try to meet up!

Again - I’ll write more about the whole Boston trip - but not until I get back to Rochester (Jan 1st).

Tomorrow will be a blast I hope… First Night in Boston!

friends, life, travel

So, I will write a full Boston trip entry when I get home - with pictures and everything… but here is what happened today!

We left Rochester around midnight. The drive took about 6 hours and was actually a lot of fun listening to music and just shooting the shit with Geoff and Brian. The Garmin GPS was a life saver since 90 was closed at one point due to downed powerlines! The GPS fixed us up and got us farther along with no trouble. Woo!

Anyway, we got in a little after 6. We stopped and got some breakfast. We were able to check in super early too! So we all took a nap before heading to the Samuel Adams Brewery tour. The tour was amazing - I’ll write more about it later.. but simply amazing! I highly recommend it.

We spent the rest of the evening running around just exploring the city. More stories later - time to relax!

booze, travel