Wow...so this semester is finally over. I can't believe that my last post was actually BEFORE the semester started.
This semester, looking back, has been a series of let-downs, I guess...but at the same time, I've grown and learned a lot, so I guess it hasn't been all bad.
School:FUCK IT.
I had three classes: VHDL, Digital Circuits and Senior Design. The only class I actually sort of enjoyed was Digital Circuits, because it was very similar to the kind of things I had been doing at AMD. VHDL and Senior Design can suck a clown's dick, for all I care.
VHDL: So, this class had a lab component. The lab is a small room with about 10-15 computer stations (for a class of at least 40-60). Not only this, but the TAs are only actually in the lab for questions/lab checkout etc. during the noon-ish to 5pm hours except for Tuesday (the final day labs could be checked out). This sucked hard for me because I had class from 9:30 to 5:30 straight (with no breaks) on Tuesday and Thursday and work from 9-5 on Monday Wednesday and Friday...so my only time to use the hardware was realistically either Saturday or Tuesday (the day everyone and their mother and their mother's dog's best friend Stephen are in there trying to check these stupid things out on). The labs required a partner so I joined up with another guy who was working and taking classes. Long story short: he sucked...bad. I did all of the labs up until Spring Break, where he dropped the class. I got a new partner after this who actually had some idea as to what was going on, so I was marginally happier after this.
Also, one of the TAs was a jerk. The other TA was much nicer and understanding about things.
I got an A in this class...just barely; and I didn't have to take the final.
Senior Design: Our project was to make a touch-sensitive LED matrix that functioned as both input and output...we had teams of 4 but, up until literally 2 weeks or so before the thing was due, I did ALL of the fucking work. We had 2 guys working on programming who wouldn't know a data direction register from their asshole if you asked them. They took an entire MONTH to get a fairly straightforward analog-to-digital conversion on an input pin working. Fuck them. I wound up having to build all of our hardware in one day/night/next day...I literally sat in front of a soldering iron for 27 hours straight...
The thing wound up working, then we had to write a paper...I was the only one who finished my part of the paper to meet the deadline we set for ourselves...one guy didn't finish his shit until 6:30 the morning it was due...I didn't sleep that night, turned in our paper, gave a final presentation (which we didn't prepare for....and the girl in the group was an HOUR late for because she fell asleep and didn't wake up to her alarm) and somehow, I made an A in the class....what the hell?
Digital Circuits: This was my favorite class out of the 3 I took. In the beginning it was really good, because it was filling in all of the little gaps in knowledge I had gathered from my time working at AMD...but toward the end, we started going over things that I had a much higher understanding of than we even covered in the class, so I got a little bored. However, it was nice to finish a lab in 2 hours when I knew everyone in the class spent 20+ hours on...and still getting one of the highest grades (the only person I know who beat me literally drained 40 hours on the lab...and his timing was only slightly better)..
I took this final (my only final this semester) on Wednesday. Hopefully that comes back well enough to get an A...but at this point, I seriously don't care. If I get a B, I'm fine with that...
Work:
So, about a month ago now, I was told by my manager at AMD that, due to the fact that they were in a serious hiring freeze (and later announced that they would be laying off 10% of their workforce) that he had been unable to secure a position for me after my co-op ended. I was pretty crushed at first because I have grown fairly close (in a work-related sense) to my co-workers and my project. I really like the work environment at AMD and everything. Mike (my manager) assured me that it was not a performance based decision, but purely financial. Apparently his manager (and even the site director) took the case all the way to the VP of silicon design who still denied the request. Honestly, the fact that so many people made such an attempt is telling of the impression I've made with my manager. He tells me that, as soon as AMD is in decent financial shape, he's going to try to persuade me to come back.
So the job search was on. I applied to Centaur (they make microprocessors sold under the VIA brand) but they rejected me via a form letter without even giving me an interview or anything. I was a little bummed. I then started looking around. Major prospects were IBM, Intel, Sun, and ARM. I applied to ARM kind of on a whim...I applied for a position very similar to what I do at AMD while I was waiting for Erin to get out of her classes one day. They called me less than 48 hours later to set up a phone screening. After my phone screening, the next day they called to set up on-site interviews. The day I left my interview (about an hour and a half later, I'd say) they called to set up a second interview. So I'm thinking to myself, "Wow! This is going very fast." They had told me they had several other candidates to interview over the course of the next several weeks, but they seemed to really want me. During my second interview, I was told that they were considering me not only for the position for which I applied, but also for another position. Three days after my second on-site interview, they called me to tell me that they would be working out numbers and such and sending me an offer. This whole process took about 3 weeks (but I caused a week delay by scheduling my first on-site interview a week after my phone screen). My offer wound up being quite a bit more than I was really looking for and I'm pretty pleased with the numbers.
In other news: Kerstan and I have started skating again. I'm not to the same level I used to be, but it's slowly coming back. We sort of decided to do this because the creek we swam in last summer is dry right now...we're still hoping it'll come back, but I'm not so sure anymore. Also, our band is doing alright. We're not practicing as much as we used to; Erin and I hope to rent a house starting in August and the house we practice at now is kind of small and a hassle (4 guys live there and we don't want to be a bother...plus we have to carry a lot of gear back and forth and the drums are NEVER tuned the way I leave them...)
Erin and I are doing well. She has an internship this summer with a pretty decent company and seems excited about it. I really hope she enjoys working in industry as much as I have (or at least close enough to be happy). She really wasn't nearly as stressed this semester as she has been in previous ones. Her last final is right now (7pm to 10pm) so hopefully she's doing well.
I'm done with school (as long as that circuits final was well enough to pass the class...which, if it's not, I have NO idea how that could be). My parents/other family are forcing me to actually walk at graduation...which I'm not terribly happy about, but I can't really help that, I suppose. I'm still not sure who all is going to come, but it should be kind of a lot...my brother and his girlfriend are spending the night at our apartment that night, then we're going to go to San Marcos to swim in the river there. That night, we'll come back to Austin and probably go to Fogo De Chao for dinner (I told my brother that if ARM paid me a really sweet number, I'd take him there, because he'd been ranting about it for a while now).
Long entry....not even a very good one =\