Class is pretty boring, so maybe this would be a good time to actually update the blog with something personal. This is so much more boring than gaming posts I think. I feel like this stuff doesn’t really matter. Plus, people are either close enough to me that they don’t need to read it or distant enough that they don’t need to know. Of course, this is only read by William, who probably already knows, and James, who probably doesn’t care.

 
My position at MeridianLink ends soon (in three and a half weeks)! I started on May 13, 2008, so I’ll have been there for a year this time next week. I worked on my resume a bunch and went to the career fair a few weeks ago. I haven’t found much though. I was nervous before the career fair, but it was really nothing. A lot of the companies were pretty disappointing. We looked them all up ahead of time. Some of the companies that had software development positions opened didn’t know anything about those positions at the career fair. They were there only looking for particular positions even though their companies’ web sites listed multiple positions. There were also quite a few places that didn’t accept resumes and didn’t have much information. They simply told me to read their job listings on their site and apply there. If that’s the case, why come? There were also some places that I thought would have positions but that only had positions tangentially related. Of the remaining places, a good portion of them were only on the East Coast. Some were places that I didn’t really care about, but the NSA, CIA, IRS were interesting and all based on the East Coast. The NSA or CIA would be tempting, but I’m probably not qualified for something so competitive. I gave my resume out a lot though!
The most exciting company there was ArenaNet, the creator of Guild Wars. They weren’t listed in the documentation that was given out ahead of time, so seeing ArenaNet was a surprise. They also had no signs, banners, or anything. Just one table with a paper taped to it with their name (to specify to the companies where to set up), and one woman. I wanted to put off seeing them until the end because I was nervous and wanted the experience of talking to other companies. Near the end I saw the ArenaNet representative get up and begin to leave. I rushed over to talk to her, and she was more than happy to sit back down and talk a little. I think they were primarily looking for web development, which I’ve done at MeridianLink! I also expressed my interest in game development, and she took my resume.
I received an email from ArenaNet recently asking for code samples. They want a few thousand lines of my best work. I’m not sure what to give as a sample though. I feel like most of the Java work I’ve done at UCI is small and more of an excercise than anything important. I haven’t done too much programming in years besides my AI class last quarter and my classes this quarter. Off the top of my head, the only classes I took in the last two years that had a lot of programming were AI and signals classes using MATLAB programming. I don’t think MATLAB would be the best language to show, and I didn’t do very well in those classes anyways. My AI project from last quarter didn’t work well either. Regardless, Java isn’t even my strongest language anymore, and that’s what the majority of my UCI programming has been. My strongest is now C#, and all of my C# code is owned by MeridianLink. I’ll have to use what I learned at MeridianLink to code something up from scratch. ArenaNet said it doesn’t have to compile and run; it just needs to show my skill.
My Classics class is the first Classics class I’ve taken that I didn’t enjoy. It’s also the first Classics class I’ve taken that was a Comparative Literature class colisted as Classics. I think the professor is a Comparative Literature professor and part of the Classics department too. It’s interesting to be reading Ancient Greek novels, but I don’t really enjoy the class very much.
Senior Design is alright. The class is alright, but sometimes the lectures feel lengthy. The class does meet twice a week from 7:00 PM to 8:50 PM, so that’s probably a contributing factor. The teacher randomly calls on people though, which makes me nervous.
Okay that’s all. Now I’m at home and not so bored, so this post doesn’t get to be finished. Be glad I’m posting what I am.