Goals 44 & 64: Back to School

They said the day would come, that the shuffling would have to end...

I moved from Orlando to Palo Alto in a swift 9-day coast-to-coast roadtrip (spending 3 days in New Mexico).

 I turned 24 in the process, which reminds me of a quote I read once but cannot find now that went something like:

"Everything you will become, you will be by the time you are 25."

Probably horseradish, but I still am going to do my best to become quite the person over the next year.

So anyway, I went to Disneyland (for free because I was still a castmember at the time). The greatest thing about it was going to the new Little Mermaid ride, which I worked on extensively back in Florida. It was such a trip! Like fast forwarding into the future, I saw it all put together, finished, where I had been watching the gradual completion at WDW.

I arrived in Palo Alto after a short stay with my friend Chandra, who I met in Sweden. When I got to Palo Alto, I called housing to find out about how I move into my room. Fun news, my room wouldn't be ready until Friday morning...it was Tuesday.

I didn't know anyone in the area, actually, since I was just getting there, so I had to call people I thought had people in the area. Well, my network won me three places to stay over the next three nights, one with a friend of a friend, one with a sister of a former co-worker (and friend), and one that I had met on my visit day to Stanford. Didn't had to sleep in the car once!

Goal 44: Start Grad School or Begin a Career

Well then I started school. My first class was ARTSTUDI 160, a course on visual language. The teacher was intimidating, saying things like "This will be the hardest class you ever take." At first I scoffed, thinking these were probably mostly first year undergrad students, but then when nearly everyone raised their hands in response to "How many of you are graduate students," the sir was not surprised in the least...in fact, he expected everyone to be graduate students... He spent an hour and a half going over the syllabus thoroughly, explaining the difficulty with each project. I was effectively frightened, and was more than happy to not get in.

My final schedule consisted of a class that took me to factories and manufacturers in the Bay Area every Friday, a design class, and a product management class. Here's some camera dissection at IDEO.

The rest, in brief, goes like this:

1. Started classes

2. Joined a dozen clubs to get free food everyday

3. Attended classes I wasn't taking

4. Watched classes online

5. Ran out of time for all the extra stuff (except free food) when paper bikes kicked into gear

Goal 64: Build Something I can Fit Into

That shit is a bike. A bike made of paper. It has a converting feature, allowing it to go from sliding to rolling, and its chassis is a tank. Here's a time lapse of the whole thing being built.

Our mega-team was victorious, winning 2 out of 3 in the paper bike rally of 2011. 

(New Orleans Skybridge)

Status: Tired of writing...

Goal 34 & 73: Farewell Friends

My time at Walt Disney World was amazing, spectacular, shufflicious, and all too short. My crew there was easily the most energetic and exciting group of friends I've ever had. As the summer came to an end, I transitioned from coast to coast, from industry to academia, paid to poor. But there was plenty of fun before all that..

The shufflin' crew's very own Sydney Moeller planned a trip to Savannah, Georgia one weekend. A beautiful place of Southern charm, we were all drawn to the Craft Brew festival that would occur there. I didn't buy an advance ticket for $10 off online, which ended up being an advantage, because Jimmy managed to find his way in without using his, so we split the cost of one. Once inside, we drank the finest brews from around the country.

After a while we were feeling pretty confident, and started touring behind the scenes of the conference center. I found an inspiring doorway.

The brewfest was quite nice, but there were more important things to be done whilst in Savannah...

Goal 34: Get Crabs at THE Crab Shack

For many years my parents have told me about The Crab Shack in Savannah, and I've always wondered what it might be like to actually go, with the garbage can holes, and the platters of crabs. If we were going to Savannah, I simply had to go.


We ordered blue crab, dungeness crab, and snow crab, and they arrived on platters of delicious. We spent over an hour devouring the crabmatter. Dungeness crab is what I grew up on, so I'm drawn to it as the delicacy of my youth. It has substantial meat in the legs, and is sweet with a savory finish. Snow crab is the most common, and tastes very sweet. It's delicious, and I've sometimes compared the taste to fresh shrimp. Blue crab...well, um...I dunno. In all honesty, I don't remember the blue crab, except I know the legs were small, and had appropriately sized chunks of meat, resulting in a relatively low efficiency scour.

The next day we went to the Lady and Son's restaurant, the one chef'd by Paula Dean. I buffet'd the crap out of myself.

We also went to the beach to play some baller volleyball, and we toured around Savannah. It was a great final trip to take with the crew. Once we came back, it seemed like the final weeks flew by. They were filled with shuffling everyday, 80's nights, dinner out, goodbyes, and even....

Goal 73: Go Paintballing

A group of co-workers invited everyone out on a paintballing expedition. It may have had something to do with Livingsocial, or Groupon, but I don't recollect.

I had a rootin' tootin' 'ol time, shootin' up the place.

A nice overcast day, by the end of it we were all soaked from sweating through our clothes in the humidity.

(Savannah Skybridge)

Status: Overdue