Cranky. Old. Man?

Am in an incredibly good mood!

Things to share:

- I have apparently made it to the final 20 applicants that are going to be shown to the Grad Committee for admission into the ENE program. SO, here's to hoping that the final cut doesn't include me. They want a picture, so I am probably going to figure out the dorkiest picture I can of myself without looking TOO ridiculous. Considering as I'm basically a living cartoon, this shouldn't be hard.

- Both the HS intern applicants are pretty awesome. I'm going to make them learn some programming, as they both have an interest in the technical as well as the content side. The girl in particular (YES. FINALLY A GIRL) seems to really be interested in the e-learning aspects. She also actually knows what cosplay is, so that was nice. XD I am basically the world's easiest interviewer; if you show up on time (she was an hour early actually) and actually seem interested in what's going on, you're likely to get hired. Granted, it wasn't like I was hiring financial advisors or anything serious like that. So now in addition to Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge, we now have Zone and Watts. Yes, I rename them after FF NPCS.

Tomorrow is the DAY OF MEETINGS, including technically a presentation for the Dept of Education regarding our usage of Astro in schools, another planning meeting for the Aero game, planning meeting for the STEM SPACE projects (aka, all the things I work on), and the weekly Intern Meeting. I'm most excited about the intern meeting, as it will no doubt be full of energy with the new kids, as well as Wedge making us play through parts of his robot game.

I know adults aren't nearly as fun as kids when it comes to managing for projects, but I am waaaay less nervous about doing any project manager work now. I need to not assume people won't listen to me, get out of that mindset. I'm not in undergrad anymore, I can assert my expertise. I'm the engineer in the company, after all.

So yes, all good things.

Alright, I'm quite fond of my minions.

There's something funny about the coincidences that life throws at you. See, most of college I hung with two guys: Matt and Justin. Matt's since got a job and I'm bad about keeping up, and Justin is the other dude graduate five billion years later than everyone else. It took Matt about the same amount of time to graduate, but he was already a year older than us. Funny thing is, my minions are another M&J combo, and creepily enough, the Matt is also laid back and quiet and interjects hilarious things in a sort of sardonic manner. The J is not so much like Justin, except for maybe a similar sense of humor. But it's funny how that happens. I seem to fall into a two guys and a girl grouping a lot. XD

But anyway, my minions are basically awesome.

( on how they are awesome )

On a stranger note, I saw the older brother of a friend of mine from high school as a manager at the McDonald's I went to today. He's been working that job... since I was in high school. Is it wrong to feel awkward seeing people like that? Not that it's a bad job or anything... but even while I'm in town I feel like I'm in this separate world (and in some respects I am) than when I lived here when I was younger. Like, one of my big things when I was in high school was getting the hell out of here, which I did, I've been to some strange and interesting places and met some strange and interesting people. And while I'm here for a job, it feels less like... like I was forced to be here. Even living in my parents' basement feels less like a failure and more like an in-between step to full autonomy. I don't know. Just strange thoughts.

~Cendri

P.S. This is wicked, wicked fun.