The only thing constant in life is change

Kick... Push... Coast...

2006-05-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

hot track :: Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push

Nice beat, a good chillin out song. Makes me wanna go play Tony Hawk. haha. This is the guy featured on Kanye West's song, "Touch the Sky".

Return of Jack the Ripper

2006-04-21T10:20:00.000-05:00

now spinnin :: LL Cool J - Control Myself (feat. Jennifer Lopez)

I'm kinda surprised, but the new LL album is hot. Every song except one has a guest, so it has that Santana (Carlos, not Juelz) quality to it. Tracks to check out - Control Myself, Favorite Flavor (w/ Mary J), Down the Aisle (w/ 112), What You Want (w/ Freeway), and the So Sick remix with Ne-Yo.

20/20

2006-04-13T22:40:00.000-05:00

Just had my laser eye surgery today... it was actually a little more painful than what they were telling me, but its fine now. The whole thing only takes 10 mins or so to do, with the laser on you for less than a minute. During the first part of it, they put a thing in your eye to keep you from blinking and apply a lot of pressure on the eye which makes everything black out. I knew it was coming so it wasn't scary, but still... After that the machine cuts into your cornea to make a flap. You're asked to just stare at a flashing red light and try to ignore whats going on. The doctor peels the flap back to reveal the part of the cornea to operate on, and then a laser is used to reshape it. The flap is put back into place and that's it.

My eyes were stinging and tearing all the way home. They advise you to take a long nap after you get home - that definitely helped. Everything feels fine now and I just have to keep applying my eye drops (3 different kinds, one of which is a steroid) for the next week. It's gonna take a while for my vision to stabilize, but I already see the difference. In my follow up visits they'll be able to find out what my vision was corrected to. All in all, it was expensive, but definitely worth it. No more glasses and contacts!

budda baby...

2006-04-11T16:44:00.000-05:00

Black Buddafly feat. Fabolous :: Bad Girl

Fabolous is probably one of the better "new school" rappers out today. He's flows well in this song but man... he bit one of Jay-Z's more memorable lines. See if you can find it. The song is on their site.

Online software

2006-04-09T23:02:00.000-05:00

Kiko is a an online calendar which I've recently discovered. It's completely free, as many of these types of web services are, and very powerful. You can have a publicly accessible calendar as well as private entries for only you or your contacts to see. It has a very slick drag n' drop interface with tabbed navigation.. it can send you reminders of your appointments via email, AIM, or SMS messaging on your cell phone. One great feature is the ability to "quick create" an appointment.. an example: I typed into the text box "pay Cingular bill on10th of every month" and now my calendar has a reminder listed on the 10th of every month. Very cool.

With quality products such as this, Writely (online word processor), NumSum (online spreadsheet tool), and others made by startup companies, many desktop software publishers will lose out if they don't adjust their business model. Moving such services online eliminates the "oh I forgot my presentation on my home computer" situations and also adds the possibility of collaboration between peers/coworkers.

Writely being bought out by Google recently only validates that these companies are succeeding. Just about anything can be brought online... check out YouOS for an example: an online Operating System? Might sound crazy at first but it's a project that I'll keep my eye on.

On a related note, Google plans to release an online hard drive / storage service (GDrive, what else would they call it?), giving everybody infinite storage space.. with the goal of "storing 100% of user data". Sure it will raise privacy concerns, but it's Google... not only will they probably get it right, they'll make themselves richer too.

Some ideas have swirled around my head lately... maybe I should jump on the bandwagon too.

Top 5 Songs of All Time (at the moment)

2006-03-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

the top 5 songs in the "Top Rated" section of my Winamp:
(based on star rating and number of spins)

1. James Blunt - You're Beautiful
2. Ne-Yo - So Sick
3. Cascada - Everytime We Touch
4. Craig David - Don't Love You No More
5. Jack Johnson - Never Know

As much as I listen to rap (a lot), it's interesting that there are no rap songs are listed, even throughout the top 20 or so. Lately with rap music there haven't been a lot of songs where you go "Lemme hear that again!!"... the rap game is getting stale. If songs like "Laffy Taffy" keep becoming "hits", it's only going to get worse. Until the next great emcee emerges it's up to guys like Nas, Kanye, Common and (not so sure about this one anymore) Eminem to keep hip-hop off life support.

1st day of Spring

2006-03-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

Bahama Breeze I
Originally uploaded by tonyvt2005.

and there's snow and ice in the forecast tomorrow. D'oh. I've had a sore throat for a few days now. I've been living around 4 kids, and they all got strep, I guess that's what it is. But of course, I refuse to see a doctor and get antibiotics, so I will tough it out with my salt water gargling and massive water intake, unless anyone has a better idea.

I'm actually blogging from the flickr site since they have a "blog this photo" feature now, so I'm just trying it out.

By the way my gf and I have a little pool going in the NCAA tournament and you know what? She is kicking my ass... she picked Bradley to go to the Elite Eight so now I am way behind. If Bradley wins another game I'm pretty much out of it (we're using facebook, which does underdog scoring) even if the four teams I picked in the Final Four - UCLA, UConn, LSU, and Boston College - all make it. And you know what her "system" is? Picking the team with the cuter name... go figure.

now spinnin'

2006-01-24T23:12:00.000-05:00

Mary J. Blige :: Be Without You

Absolutely Resoluting

2006-01-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

now spinnin' :: 112 - You Already Know

Resolutions: 1) buy a keyboard and learn how to play, 2) kick ass at the new job, 3) save money

Merry Christmas

2005-12-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everybody! I know that's not the p.c. way of saying it, but i really don't care..hehe.

blogging from Wintergreen resort

2005-12-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

need snowboarding tips, please. i'm dyin out here

It's a celebration *******

2005-12-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

"grab a drink grab a glass, after that i'll grab yo ass"...

Exams, projects, homeworks, everything...they're all officially over (as an undergrad anyway) as of Wednesday. Graduation is tomorrow at 2PM (moved back due to the weather) and I'm glad this phase of my life is over. There's obviously things we will all miss about our college years, but I've been ready to move on for quite some time. Time to enter the "real world" and realize my potential right?? Hmmmm..

Well, I'm still waiting on that TS/SSBI (top secret, single-scope background investigation) clearance before I can start at Boeing. My manager is optimistic that it'll be soon, but most likely it'll be a while longer. Of course it's kind of a nuisance now, but in the end it's worth it. Companies involved in the gov't or defense invest 20-30k (from what I know) to get you this clearance, so once you get it, you're pretty much set as far as job security goes. And even if you're ever let go or leave your job for some reason, you can easily get any other defense job you want, just because of the fact that you already have clearance and a company wouldn't have to wait a year for you to come onboard. Having more people with clearance within a team or company is better when it comes to bidding for contracts, etc.

So in my X amount of time off, there's the holidays - home to the 757 this weekend, snowboarding at Wintergreen next week, Xmas in Nova with the fam, not sure what for New Year's, then a trip back to Seattle to visit you know who. I'll also be searching for an apartment near D.C. - I'm thinking Alexandria, Arlington, Falls Church, etc. - with an short commute to Springfield for work. I'll be taking an online biology class to fulfill my last requirement for my Bachelor's in Computer Engineering (I'm both a Computer Engineering and Computer Science major, and I'll be walking for CS tomorrow). I'll probably sign up for an Accounting class at GMU just to start preparing for an MBA. Yes, I'm going that route...although I change my mind every week so who knows. I also want to find a part-time night/weekend job...nothing major, just a help desk/tech-support type thing. I may or may not keep it when I start with Boeing, depending on how things balance.

I can hear the bad music playing already...it's about that time. Congratulations to everyone graduating...it's been a long time comin. - TH

Boeing Delivers 10th 777 to Vietnam Airlines

2005-12-11T00:08:00.000-05:00

http://boeing.com/news/releases/2005/q4/nr_051208h.html

Interesting...had no idea Vietnam had any 777's....I guess they're doing better than I thought. According to the article, the airplane that was delivered also carried some textbook donations from Seattle U. The textbooks are to support English-language technical degree capabilities at Vietnam National University - aerospace, IT, etc. Of course, this is all a clever scheme by Boeing... they know the value of hiring us Vietnamese people... *cough**cough*

In other news, graduation is this Friday. I've got 3 exams to not study for.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

FIRE track :: Fort Minor - Remember The Name

Fort Minor is Mike Shinoda (from Linkin Park)'s side project...the whole album, Rising Tied, is dope. Real MC'ing...no guns, drugs, sex, women, etc. Highly recommended. It comes out Tuesday.

Flying out early tomorrow morning to....the Caribbean! This is gonna be nice...I'm meeting my fam down there, they flew down yesterday. I'm bringing the laptop in case I get a chance to do some work (projects due after break)... but seriously, I doubt I'll do anything. It's the final stretch...when I get back...just 2.5 weeks of class/exams and its all over. For good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Times a' changin

2005-11-12T18:40:00.000-05:00

Volunteered for most of the day today (7:30-3:00) for the FIRST Lego League Regional Tournament at Christiansburg Middle School. Basically it's a competition for middle school students where they design and implement a small robot to perform underwater missions. It wasn't really underwater, the tables tops were just blue... It was neat to see what these kids came up with for tasks such as rescuing a dolphin, finding a treasure chest, etc... the "language" they used to program the robots was nowhere near the complexity of C++, Pascal, or anything, but it did cover important concepts like iteration and conditional branching. I wish I had stuff like this in middle school...just shows how much technology is advancing, and how easier it is for kids to have access to and understand technology.... even in southwest Virginia...

pretty soon we're gonna have more stories similar to this, where a girl from Pakistan became a certified Microsoft engineer at age 9...

It's official..

2005-11-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

accepted the Boeing job.

Division: Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems
Location: Springfield VA (just outside D.C.)
Start Date: If the stars align, late January
Job Title: Mercenary

ok ok.. ESE Lvl 1 (Embedded Software EngiNERD)

2 fingers, peace.

now spinnin'

2005-11-03T20:36:00.000-05:00

David Banner feat. Jagged Edge - 2 Fingers

that man is dirty....haha

So much work to do... tryin to get some out the way so I can enjoy the game - speaking of which I found a nice highlight package of this season: http://media.putfile.com/Call-to-Arms

After much research (ok not really), there's no realistic chance I can get into an MBA school next year...a good one anyway. I want to go to Georgetown, but you need about 3 years work experience in addition to everything else to have a chance. So I think I'm gonna get my Masters in CS first (part-time from Virginia Tech in Northern VA) and then go from there. There's a couple other programs at Georgetown besides the MBA that I'm pretty interested in too. Hopefully I'll still be motivated by then. At least it'll all be free. The deadline to apply for Fall '06 is July 1. So the first half of next year I'm gonna take it easy, ease into the Boeing job (assuming I start by then..), and prepare for the GRE. I hear that's not something you can cram a couple weeks for. More like a few months. I'm sure I'll find a way to half-ass that too.

Go Hokies.

Texas: MOVE, B****

2005-10-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Crazy game next Sat. night:
National Rank: VT #3, Miami #5
Total Defense: VT #2, Miami #1
Scoring Defense: VT #1, Miami #3

Hip Hop Unity

2005-10-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=4996

Jay-Z and Nas on stage performing together...definitely good for hip hop. Most people knew the beef was over anyway, from what they've both said in interviews about respecting each other. Even when I saw Nas in concert he refused to do "Ether"...he teased it a little bit but bleeped out the "F--- Jay-Z" part.

This is what Biggie and 'Pac never had a chance to do.

it's COLD

2005-10-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

throwback track :: Nas - Book of Rhymes

changed the song b/c it reminds me of seein Nas in concert this past summer in Seattle..when it was HOT...as opposed to now, when Blacksburg is turning into Blacksburg again (read: COLD).

updated the flickr site with some pics from my nieces bday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyvt2005
I actually paid for that thing but I'm nowhere near using the 2GB upload per month limit. I need to start snappin some more pics. Better watch out if you see me..

What's with this naming convention lately...flickr...Motorola has the RAZR, PEBL, ROKR...

I'm just mad I didn't think of it first.

IBM

2005-10-19T10:03:00.000-05:00

IBM interview Friday...a little nervous. One bad thing though, their info session the night before is from 6:30-9:00...and all Hokie fans know whats going on during that time period. :( I guess that's why people buy TiVo. I'm guessing a consulting position wouldn't be that high paying, does anybody know? I mean, they're already paying a lot for your travel costs every week. So IF it comes down to IBM vs. Boeing, its a question of money (Boeing will win there) and lifestyle...not sure who would win that - I want to travel, but how long would it be until I get sick of living out of a hotel? With Boeing, I'd be living in the Springfield area most likely, which seems decent. I'll take recommendations for places to live if anyone has any. Of course with the consulting job I'm guessing you start at the bottom of the food chain..meaning you're the one stuck with wack assignments like being in North Dakota...in January.

What factors are/will be most important to you (yes, YOU) when it comes time to enter the real world and get a job? Money? Power? Respect? haha.

uh oh class is starting..

more music

2005-10-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

now spinnin' :: Kanye West ft. Adam Levine - Heard Em Say

Dang Common dropped off Kanye's tour at the last minute to do a movie...that's wrong. That would have been a hot show since they have the 2 best hip-hop albums this year.

mini-playlist:
Kanye - Heard Em Say
Rihanna - Music of the Sun
Bobby Valentino - Tell Me
Alicia Keys - Unbreakable
Bow Wow ft. J-Kwon - Fresh Azmiz
Lil Kim - Lighters Up
Chris Brown - Run It!
PCD - Stickwitu

Mommy wow..I can fold tshirts now

2005-10-07T02:50:00.000-05:00

now spinnin' :: Twista feat. Trey Songz - Girl Tonite

Martha Stewart has rocked my world. I saw her on Late Night with Conan O'brien the other day and she showed him her way to fold tshirts. It's like magic, I'll never have wrinkly t-shirts again..haha.

new music: Twista's new album is pretty good, and (surprise) so is Lil' Kim's. I don't know if she deserved 5 mics in The Source, but then again they aren't the most credible reviewers. On a much different note, the new Fiona Apple album, Extraordinary Machine, is amazing. This is an album she wanted to release years ago but her record label wouldn't put it out because it wasn't commercial enough. Since then she's changed it a lot, getting some production help from Mike Elizondo, who does a lot of work with Dr. Dre. He made some tight beats, but it's definitely not hip-hop. Some tracks to check out - Extraordinary Machine, Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song), Window.

I went to IBM's information session today for their BCS (Business Consulting Services) side. The "Other" IBM, as they like to be called. I think a consulting position would be exciting, at least for a few years. 100% travel, getting to work all around the country/world instead of the same place every day. Variety of work, meaning it would be hard to get bored. The opportunity to meet and interact with all sorts of clients. I think starting out, this type of position would be best in terms of personal and career growth. The interview is in two weeks, so hopefully that works out. They're hiring 800 people right now, I've gotta be a lock right? haha. I've also got interviews with Microstrategy and ASTi (Advanced Simulation Technology, Inc.) coming up, but I'm less excited about those. Good thing Boeing is giving me so much time to decide. I like having options.

I'll be in NOVA for the long weekend. Until next time.

~T

VT is #3 baby

2005-09-25T17:45:00.000-05:00

now spinnin' :: Bobby Valentino - Tell Me

Lovin the beat to that song. Dunno why, but it reminds me of some of the low-budget Chinese movies I've seen.

How bout those Hokies yesterday. 51-7 over #15 Georgia Tech. GT was probably overrated but oh well, it was a good win. Can't look past WVU next week, but I think the team has learned its lesson from 2003. I want USC in the Rose Bowl.

Ok back to reality...two tests and two homeworks due Tuesday. No sleep til then. Peace.

~T

3000 mile road trip??

2005-09-20T23:42:00.000-05:00

now spinnin' :: Ciara - Roll With You

After going to the Engineering Expo (career fair) today, I realized something: I'm too lazy to do anymore interviewing. It's such a painful process to go through, for the most part. A lot of companies have the b.s. behavioral interviews, i.e. "What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? Talk about a time when you worked on a team and you ran into a problem. What would you do if you found out your co-worker takes 10 boxes of staples home everyday?". I think I do ok in those kinds of interviews, but it's annoying as hell. I prefer the strictly technical ones, although you've really got to know your stuff if you want to impress. It's not as easy to b.s. your way through the way you could in a behavioral one. I've got an interview with BAE Systems tomorrow, but I'm thinking of cancelling. They're just like Boeing. If they were a completely different type company I would be more interested, but they pretty much do the same type of defense work. Sprint-Nextel, Accenture, and others are coming back to campus in October for interviews. If those kinds of companies (IT, non-defense) give me a call, I might pursue, but for now I'm about 95% sure I'm taking the Boeing job in Springfield.

Speaking of which, I asked my hiring manager if there was any unclassified work I could do while I wait for my clearance. He said I could support my previous manager from the internship I did this past summer. So there might be two options: 1) working remotely from the Springfield office, and 2) going back to Seattle. If option 1 turns out to be a possibility, I know my parents would prefer I do that. But I'm not sure which I would choose. I wouldn't mind going back at all, and if you don't know why, well you can ask me. haha. What I would do differently this time is driving my own car over there. Boeing pays for all the gas and hotel stays, and once I'm over there I wouldn't have to worry about a rental car. I had a rental over the summer and it was ridiculously expensive, even at the corporate rate (~900 a month). Which means...a 3000 mile road trip. If I took my time and saw some attractions along the way (Mt. Rushmore, etc.) I'm guessing it would take a week. I would definitely need a companion...anybody want to volunteer??? I know one person that can't...you know who u are. I'll pay for your flight back home. Seriously. haha. This would be sometime in January. Just for fun I mapquested it.

Wow.

Back on track...

2005-09-13T00:14:00.000-05:00

Ok it's been about 3 months since my last post, I'm really not good at this. I'll have to post some pics of my summer in Seattle later on. It was no doubt the best summer I've had since being at college - I was working for a great company (Boeing), saw a different part of the country, enjoyed much better summer weather, and met some amazing people. A quick shout out to Andrea, Annie, Ritesh, Amit, Cuong, Kevin, any other intern who might be reading this, and last but not least Mary.

So here I am in my LAST SEMESTER here at VT. School started about 3 weeks ago and I've got off to a very slow start (still in the summer mood I guess), but things are picking up and I think I'm getting back on track. Plus I've got some extra motivation - I just heard from the BOeiNG staffing people today - I got the full-time job I interviewed for last month. I'm pretty pleased with the offer and I doubt I will get much better elsewhere, plus I am very interested in the work I would be doing. So I will probably end up accepting, however they're giving me til Nov. 30th to decide, so I'm gonna milk that time and look around at other companies. haha. The offer is contingent upon me graduating, of course, and also upon obtaining a TS (top secret) level security clearance. The clearance shouldn't be a problem, it's just gonna take awhile (6mo-1yr).

Speaking of graduating, if I want to do so I'd better start studying for my Statics test tomorrow night (yes, I waited this long to take Statics) instead of writing in my blog. Best wishes to everyone, and I swear I will update this more. Really.

-T

Not everyone, but it's the best I've got for now. Sorry Amit, I'll photoshop you in sometime. haha

Finally...

2005-06-14T08:55:00.000-05:00

Flyin to Seattle tomorrow!

Faxing in some paperwork to the relocation office and they'll give me my travel itinerary today. So a brotha's gotta go get his hurr did and pack and all that junk...peace out bitches.

now spinnin'

2005-05-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

hot track: Bow Wow feat. Omarion - Let Me Hold You

throwback: Nas feat. Q-Tip - One Love (remix)

Hot new song from Bow Wow..he sounds so different now that he's 18.

Goin to a wedding tomorrow..gonna be so boring, just like every other wedding I've been to.

First Post...

2005-05-18T23:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I was bored so I decided to start a new blog. Right now I'm just chillin at home waiting for Boeing to finish my background check and drug testing (I got the hydroponics) so I can fly out to Seattle to start working. After they get done with that the relocation office will contact me to let me know when to leave. It should be fun spending the summer in another part of the country, and I'll be makin good $$$ too. HOLLA

I went to Atlantic City with my family last weekend, all 13 of us (me, mom&dad, 2 sisters, 2 bro-in-laws, 4 nieces, 2 nephews) takin over one hotel room at the Trump Taj Mahal, asian style. It was one of the bigger rooms, like a suite, so it wasn't bad - I slept on a couch. I ended up in the positive, starting with $100 and ending with about $240 playin Caribbean Poker, Blackjack, and a little of Roulette and slot machines. Not bad, it was the first time I had been there since turning 21. All the other times if I tried steppin on the casino floor I'd get tackled and beaten senselessly.

The boardwalk was cool too. One highlight - convincing my bro-in-law to go on this ride with me where it was basically a slingshot launching you 225 ft. straight up in the air. The rest of my family are too scared, and I only got him to go because I haggled the price down a little. Typical azns. Haha. If you want to see the a video clip of the ride click here: http://filebox.vt.edu/users/thuynh/misc/MVI_1879.avi
(I'm the one of the left)

Random pic I took before we left NOVA for Atlantic City:

Aww doesn't that just melt your heart..haha

That does it for the first post. I'll try to update this more regularly than I did with my Xanga. Peace.