The Matt Faus Blog

I have posted the first round of pictures here!

My first weekend in Valencia is here, so last night I went out to eat at a restaurant down the street. The food was not too bad, but I need to remember to tell them that I want the steak cooked less next time. It was the first steak I have had with zero pink in a long time. It was also rather thin, which might have been why it was cooked so thoroughly, but I am a Texan, so I doubt anyone in Europe will be able to satisfy my standards for red meat.  Another interesting note, was that the house wine was listed at 1.5 Euros/glass while water (there’s no such thing as free “tap” water – it’s all bottled) was 1 Euro. Anyway, the meal consisted of a steak, French fries, a slice of tomato with lettuce, and a bowl of sliced baguette bread. It was pretty good, but for all that it was 14 Euros, which is $19 – not exactly cheap. I can go to Chili’s and get a similar meal for more like $12.

When I finished eat at 11:30pm (which is really quite normal), I walked around my part of the town for a little while before heading back home to play some video games. Man, I’m so glad I have my computer. I was planning to go walk around downtown today, but my throat and sinuses are killing me, so I will probably just stay in and take it easy.

The funny thing about celebrating your 21st birthday in Spain, is that it doesn’t really signify anything special here. I guess I don’t know if they get breaks on their insurance, but the drinking age is 16. Sixteen. So, celebrating that particular birthday here is rather anticlimactic. Regardless, I had a pretty good one. It was a pretty normal day, and then I went down to the beach that night after stopping by a cervecería just to show the world that I was a “grown up” now and played around in the sand and ocean breeze. I got home just in time to accept a call from Ashley in Germany, who is staying with one of the students that her family hosted as an exchange student a couple of years ago.

Right now, I’m sitting on the terrace of the coffee shop on the base floor of the dorm I’m living in. Surprisingly enough, they have a pretty solid wireless internet connection, even out here. It’s even completely free. However, I haven’t seen any other laptops in all the times I’ve eaten here, so maybe it’s not terribly popular. Either way, I’m really enjoying it.

Ashley is scheduled to arrive in Valencia on Sunday for a few days before her study abroad program begins, and it will be nice to see her and romp around the city.

After traveling 5000 miles in 30 hours with 180 pounds of luggage, I finally made it to Valencia, Spain. I’ll be here for three months living in the dorms at the University of Valencia, and studying Spanish with Don Quijote Spanish School. So far, everything has been going pretty good, except for the differences in electrical connections. I bought a power converter, but it turns out that I got the wrong one, as it is a 1600 watt converter meant for hair dryers, toasters, and other high-wattage electronics. So I will ordered some 50W power converters off of Ebay and paid for air shipping, so hopefully they will be here before too long. I got a EU power cord for my desktop since the power supply on that beast will accept anything from 100 to 240VAC, so anything in the world.

The trip over wasn’t too bad, except for the stint in Barcelona. I flew into Barcelona’s international airport (Valencia doesn’t have one) and then took the train from there to Valencia. So, I had to carry my desktop along with clothes and a carry-on from the arrival gate to the train station at the airport (up and down a few escalators), and then off the train, onto another train 3 hours later, and off the train again. At least the case I got for my computer is awesome - it’s like a case you would put your gun or bow in when going on distant huntring trip, except that it’s big enough for my computer. It has wheels and several handles, so that makes it easier, but it’s still 100 pounds.

I’ll be taking and uploading some pictures before too long, but adios until then!

Well, this semester is finally over. I really didn’t enjoy this semester as much as I have previous semesters. All of my classes were for my Software Engineering major, and that meant that it was basically all reading and writing stuff. We didn’t even do design, it was basically just how to manage a team of programmer’s to make software.

I did take Geology, however, and it was really pretty cool. I needed another lab science to complete my degree, and so I decided to take Geology thinking it would be a blow-off class. It was pretty easy, but I actually studied for it harder than a few of my other classes. I really enjoyed learning about the Earth and how incredibly complex it is. There is just so much to know about everything that surrounds us, it’s simply awe-inspiring. It’s also pretty cool at parties and stuff to be able to identify rocks used in decorations and those that you find on the ground while camping. Definitely picks up the ladies.

My grades came out pretty good GPA-wise, but it’s really lame to get 4 A-s. I mean, COME ON! It doesn’t really affect my GPA much, but an A- is just an itch that you’ve got to scratch but you can’t. Oh well, I’ve still got a 3.838. I figured that it’s mathematically impossible for me to get Summa Cum Laude (which is 3.89) with the number of classes left, and it should be really easy to get Magna Cum Laude (which is 3.69), so no big deal.

Only 18 hours left until I graduate with a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Computer Science and Software Engineering!

Well, I sold my motorcycle. It was really pretty hard to do, but I think it was the right decision. I’m headed to Spain for the summer (which I’ll get to in my next post), and I figured it would be easier just to sell it than try to have it stored and maintained over the summer. I really just put it up for about what I paid for it just to see if anyone would give me that much for it, and someone did, so I took the offer I couldn’t refuse. Anyway, when I get back I’ll have enough money saved up to get an EVEN BETTER one, haha!

Also, I’m moving out of my Waterview Park Apartment, which is on campus at UTD, to an off-campus apartment complex. I haven’t decided which one yet because it won’t be until August that I move in and no one knows their availability that far in advance, but one thing that I know is that it will have an attached garage. And you know what that means: plenty of space to park a shiny new motorcycle!

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to get this time, but I sure have been looking. The ZZR I had was a sport-touring bike, since it was a little more comfortable to sit on and had a few more features meant for long riding, but this time I’m going to get as sporty of a bike as possible. I think my favorite right now is the Yamaha R6, followed closely by the Honda CBR600RR and Suzuki GSX-Rs, but a Kawasaki 636 is pretty sweet, too. Anyway, I’ll be sure to post up when I get the new one.

A parent’s primer to l33t speak

Caffiene has given me supernatural powers of awakeness that are slowly turning into a curse, and here I am.

Astronauts are currently orbiting the Earth installing some major upgrades to the International Space Station. The name of the shuttle that took them up there was called Atlantis - I thought this was a nifty name for a space shuttle. The human race has accomplish so much in the past few generations, it will be amazing to see what we come up with next. 10 years ago the Internet was just spreading it’s wings, now we’re downloading videos and creating entire subcultures through it. What will we be doing in 2016?

Classes are going pretty good. I’ve got a nice mix of textbook and actual programming classes to make it interesting. Probability and Computer Architecture allow me to stretch my Math Muscles while Software Architecture gets me into coding some more Java. My Music class has been pretty interesting, I never knew music was some complex and beautiful. I have been able to draw a lot of parallels between writing software and writing music. The key difference is that software solves problems, while music simply exists to be enjoyed.

I’m sure I’m rambling - I’ll post about my laptop’s new operating system (Ubuntu Linux) in a few days (hopefully).

Well, shiver me timbers, I’m back in Dallas. It’s hot, and the only advice I have for most of us Texans would be: move to Washington.

No, it’s great to be home and be close to my friends and family again. Seattle was tons of fun, but it got a little lonely at times. It’s also nice to be back at school. I’ve kind of missed being a “college kid”. No sooner than when I return, classes start up. I’ve got a pretty hefty line-up this semester, but I’m really looking forward to it - only two more years for my degree! I am most definitely going to be doing graduate work, but we’ll take it one step at a time for now.

As a part of Seattle’s annual SeaFair festival the Blue Angels have been flying around town practicing for the big show this Saturday. It’s been pretty awesome because I have been able to watch several of their routines from the balcony of my apartment. I remember seeing an entire show put on by the Blue Angels in my early childhood and this is probably one of the most vivid and oldest memories I have. It’s a shame I won’t be on the ground Saturday to watch them again. However, I have managed to receive a personal escort from the squad as my flight on Alaska Airlines leaves the ground.

Check out pictures from my balcony.