The Matt Faus Blog

In my recent attempts at getting a backup system implemented, I have been going through the deep dark depths of my hard drives to determine what I need to backup and what can be discarded. In that, I found this AwesomePoem.txt:

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight in rippened grain;
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning’s hush,
I am the swift upflinging rush
of quiet birds in circling flight,
and the softest star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.

Anonymous

There’s already a YouTube gallery of all the SuperBowl XLI commercials. My favorites are the CareerBuilder’s Jungle Office, Budlight’s Fist Bump and Rock Paper Scissor, and Garmin’s Power Rangers Parody.

Well, I’m sitting here on the hammock in the perfect weather on a wonderful September evening with my laptop. I’m procrastinating doing some homework due in the morning, so I thought I’d take a chance to talk about how awesome it is doing what I do. As you might have noticed by now, I am incredibly comfortable (hammocks rank in the top 3 for relaxation), and yet I am still relatively productive. As a matter of fact, as of late I have logged several hours for Qdabra out here on this lovely hammock. Therefore, I’m getting PAID to lay on a hammock (well, and write code but that’s almost as enjoyable).

Anyway, just though I’d share some awesomeness with everyone. I’ll post about Ubuntu sometime. I’m still in trial phase.

Well, as some of you are bound to understand, after a summer of riding the buses around Seattle I was quite ready to get back to Dallas and the freedom of driving myself around. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t even satisfied with driving the “cage” around, so I went out and bought a motorcycle. Of course, I took all the necessary precautions such as going through a motorcycle safety course to get my license. I had been looking at bikes on Ebay for a while and I found a really good deal the same weekend that I graduated from the MSF course. So, a few hours after graduating I was driving to Abilene with Ashley to go pick up my new bike. Now, it wasn’t the smartest thing, but I actually drove it 185 miles back to Dallas as my first ride! It was pretty crazy and we took it slow, but we made it just fine.

Since then, I’ve been riding almost every day - I really love it! I think it’s a pretty good bike for me, not bleeding edge fast, but enough to rattle my nerves for a while. The main reason I got this particular bike was the deal that I got on it. It only had 3000 miles and it was only 3 years old and about half the manufacturer’s price. If I had bought the same bike from a dealer it probably would have cost $1k more. Anyway, it is an incredibly satisfying and enjoyable hobby - I highly recommend it to anyone that has ever given it thought.

Here she is!

Classes have begun and I was definitely right about my class lineup being pretty killer. Here’s the lo-down:

• Understanding Music (Winston Stone)
• Probability and Statistics with Applications in CS (Michael Baron)
• Computer Architecture (Ivor Page)
• Organization of Programming Languages (Mr. Boring)
• Software Architecture (David Russo)
• Co-Op (Mickey Choate)

The music class should be a nice little change and the professor seems like he gives engaging lectures. We’re required to see 3 concerts over the semester, so I will be attending a Dallas Symphony concert, the Austin City Limits festival, and one other concert to fulfill these requirements. I’m looking forward to expanding my horizons by gaining a better understanding of music.

The probability class doesn’t seem too hard. It’s pretty structured with homework and quizzes every week, so I think it should be a pretty cut ‘n dry math class like several others I have taken.

I’m really excited about Computer Architecture especially because of the professor I managed to get, Ivor Page. Dr. Page has been a part of UTD since 1981 and held several prestigous positions throughout those years.

I don’t know what to say about the Organization of Programming Languages class. I’ve been to a couple of them already and the professor (which I forgot the name of) is incredibly boring. He has this strangely haughty accent that he uses to read straight from the notes stored online. There will be some programming assignments for the class, and I guess that will be the saving grace.

I don’t know quite what to say about Software Architecture yet, because I’ve been to so few classes. I will say that the professor (which is widely regarded as quite difficult) didn’t show up the first day of class and had the sub-Prof give us a huge assignment due next class. So, next class came around and I handed in an assignment to a professor that A) I had never met, and B) came to class 20 minutes late. Twenty minutes! Although, I think I will admit that I kind of like Russo. He reminds me a lot of my high school CS teacher, Mr. Bill Hill. Both of these guys have background in the military and although they are strict at times, they are also very understanding of your desire to learn and will facilitate that by all means possible.

The Co-Op class is something I kind of decided on at the last minute. Initially I had signed up for Advanced Algorithm Design & Analysis, but I was starting to get the feeling that this was going to be too much of a class load for me to balance with work, girlfriend, etc. So, I dropped that academic class and took up the professional class. All I really have to do is forward my weekly priority e-mails with my manager to my professor, write a few memos, and then write a 10 page paper at the end of the course to receive 3 elective hours. No class, no hassle, and just keep doing what I’m doing - pretty good trade.

Last weekend I had the awesome opportunity to go wind surfing on Hood River. Driving down with Patrick and his wife Saturday morning, we traveled through Mt. St. Helens and witnessed all the damage that the volcanic eruption 1986 did to the land, and saw how long ecological systems actually take to replenish themselves. It’s pretty incredible how after even twenty years all the trees and vegetation are still lying in ruins struggling to make the land green again. I would have thought that after such a long time that the trees would have rotted away, but all of the trees that were knocked over from the blast of ash that came rushing from the mountain were still there. It was definitely a site worth seeing but far from the best I saw all weekend. I guess that’s the biggest difference between Texas and here - all the beautiful nature.

Anyway we got to the lodge and after a nice bike ride from the complimentary rentals we had dinner and began to rest up for the big day ahead of us. One interesting thing about the bike ride was that I started in Washington and rode all the way to Oregon, crossing over what is known as the Bridge of the gods. Apparently the native Americans called it this because it was a natural land bridge at the time that allowed them to trade with the opposite shores.

Now, to the point of this whole post - the wind surfing. Now, I would like to preface this by saying that I am an avid water skier who has not gotten to do much at all for the whole summer. Needless to say, I was pumped about getting on the water to do some surfing. This was the first wind powered sport I had ever tried, and it was an awesome new experience. After suiting up with some water shoes to get a better grip on the board, we headed out. When we got out there, the wind was nonexistent. It wasn’t too big of a deal because we had some dry land training to do first anyway. One lessons, two lessons, and still no wind. It was noon and I was quite bummed out. See, it’s opposite with skiing - wind is bad because it makes the water choppy, but with wind surfing it is, of course, the opposite. After a #2 at McDonald’s everything got much better. The wind picked up and with all the training I had been doing that morning, I was rockin’ and ready to go. It took me a little bit, but I had several really good runs. It was nothing like water skiing, which I think I’m pretty good at, but it was a lot of fun. It’s definitely not something you can learn in a weekend and it takes much more endurance than skiing. I’m sure if I lived around a place like that it would be something I could get into. I didn’t become an expert or anything but I think I got a pretty good handle on it through the few hours of wind that I got. Overall, it turned out to be a very successful excursion.

On the way to Portland for the night we stopped by several waterfalls and they were a grand site indeed. I haven’t seen a whole lot of waterfalls in my day, so I took plenty of pictures to commemorate the event. Portland fed us some incredible steaks and then we headed back to the beautiful city of Seattle.

Well, it seems Microsoft has deemed my involvement with the online InfoPath community worthy of recognition and have bestowed upon me the immense honor and notarity of the Most Valuable Professional award. As I am only one of seven in the world who have received this award for InfoPath, I am, needless to say, incredibly excited! For those of you in need of a visual aid, please see the picture below.

Click here to check out the posting on Microsoft’s website!

Two awesome things that happened today:

1. I realized that the Seattle Public Library has free wireless Internet.
2. I saw a man with an oxygen tank in his nostrils and a cigarette in his mouth.

I am seriously considering working from the Library full-time through the rest of the summer.

It’s hard to know where to start with this weekend. Ashley paid me a visit over the past couple days and while she was here we experienced every tourist attraction we could get our hands on during the four days and five nights that she was here.

Thursday we went to Il Fornaio restaurant in downtown Seattle where I had some amazing lasagna and Ashley got one of their famous pizzas. Afterwards we got some coffee from one of the millions of Starbucks stands downtown and walked around for a little bit.

Friday we visited one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, the Seattle Space Needle, where we took some great pictures above the skyline and shorelines. It was a pretty cool thing to say you’ve done, but it wasn’t a life-altering experience or anything. It cost $14 per person which I thought was a lot of money just to go up and look around, but I guess some experiences are worth their cost. After this we got some Chinese food and boarded the bus headed to Vancouver, BC. I had never crossed an international border before and it was a little nerve-shaking but not too bad. When we got to Vancouver we walked around and took some pictures of Science World and surrounding areas before getting fancied up to head to Cioppino’s restaurant. The food at this joint was awesome, and when we sat down they handed us a menu and a leather bound book with probably 100 pages of all the bottles of wine they had. I ordered duck, which I had never had before and it was superb. It had the tenderness of very well cooked baby back ribs with a peculiar chicken taste.

Saturday we got a pass on one of these Hop-On Hop-Off buses that did a continuous circuit around the city and surrounding areas. We walked all around the city and through many of their parks and gardens. Stanley Park was our last stop before getting back on the bus and taking the full circuit around the city. The cool thing about Vancouver is that it’s a nice metroplex area with plenty of people and things going on, but it’s very intertwined with the nature in which it resides. One thing I noticed was that the sidewalks there were about three times as wide as American cities, which made it very roomy and easy to stroll through. The architecture there was also much more aesthetic than what I’ve seen in Seattle or Dallas. It just seemed like a much more intimate surrounding than most big cities. An interesting fact about the people I saw there was there was a very large population of gothic people. I was kind of confused how Goths could be spawned in such a natural and beautiful place, but maybe that’s exactly what they’re rebelling against. Who knows. The other cool thing about Canada is the legal drinking age is 19 and everyone there seemed very laid back about everything, so that was an interesting contrast against what I’ve seen pretty much my entire life. After a long day we boarded an Amtrak train to head back to Seattle.

Sunday, we met Patrick Halstead and his wife for lunch at Yarrow Bay Grill, met my Aunt Verla and her partner Sue for dinner a few hours later, and then completely gelled out at the Seattle International Film Festival Closing Night Gala showing of the Science of Sleep, which is a movie by the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was an interesting flick but we were kind of late getting seated and could not see the English subtitles very well.

Monday brought the wonderful sights and sounds of Pike Place Market and massive amounts of art at the Experience Music Project. However, before arriving at the Public Market we stopped by the Central Seattle Public Library, and it was quite a site to behold. The architectural ingenuity that went into this building is amazing and its all glass exterior makes it a very cool place to hang out and read. I’m sure I will be spending many more lunch breaks at this amazing structure in the heart of downtown Seattle. I had never been to the market during the day and it was really pretty cool. There was freshly caught and filleted fish as well as vegetables and flowers of all kind. We had lunch at this place called the Athenian Inn which overlooked the Sound and served a great fish and chips. EMP was a lot of fun and at the end of the day I was very much overwhelmed by all the art I had seen that day. At the time we went there were three exhibits happening, the DoubleTake art exhibit, the Experience Music Project museum, and the Science Fiction museum and Hall of Fame. The DoubleTake exhibit paired works of art from different time periods to compare and contrast their qualities. There was a lot of Monet and a few Lichenstein, but it was a very down-to-earth exhibit that allowed us laymen to peruse at our own delight. After this we walked through the rock museum which chronologs the history and evolution of rock, from Jazz and blues through the psychedelic 60’s, to death metal, hair bands, and finally to modern day music. One really cool exhibit they had was how electric guitar technology had evolved over the years. After the museum you can go upstairs to the Sound Lab where there are about 20 different booths and sound proof rooms where you can experiment with keyboards, electric guitars, mixing boards, turntables, microphones, drums, wah pedals, and pretty much anything else you can think of. After all of this we headed to the Science Fiction Museum to look through a lot of amazing artifacts from the Science Fiction realm. Some of these included the original model for Jupiter 2 of Lost in Space, props from countless movies, and the only three-dimensional model of the Death Star.

After quite an amazing weekend I am, needless to say, very tired. Be sure to take at the seventy photographs I took over the weekend.