Do What You Love

I'm pretty close to giving up on this cross-compiling thing. I don't know if it's possible anymore in Windows because Windows hates developers; it's true. To top it off, tomorrow will be a long day for me: class 9AM-4PM (with only a 60 minute break) and meetings 5PM-9PM. That's more hours than most people work in a day. Moving on to the real post though, Paul Graham put up his best blog post today and it's about doing what you really love. It's surprising how many people pick their career because they think it'll make them a lot of money or they were pressured or it just sounds good. When someone tells me they hate the classes in their major, it tells me that they're not smart enough to quit and switch their field. I suppose that's unfair to say, because we really are raised to think that work should be hard and boring, and subconsciously they're just doing what they think is right. If you're iffy on what you do, then this article is really a must-read. I know it's exceptionally long, but it's also quite well-written and hard to put down once you start it. It's funny how we can spend 13-14 years of our lives learning basic cognitive abilities (reading, writing, math, etc), and yet we never take a course in high school that helps us on learning about careers. I think that's a big flaw in our school system today, and I knew quite a few people who didn't know what they were going to do in college by their senior year in high school, which is a scary thought. I hope they'll pick what will give them the most fulfillment though, because that's all that matters. A lot of people told me I shouldn't (or couldn't) do CS at UT; well I have one finger to show them in retrospective response.

To continue what that article was talking about I have another blog post, but this one is a guy detailing why he left Microsoft. It's a great read (much shorter) as he points out that it's easy to get stuck in a quickfix solution and pretend that you're happy. I never knew that Google's executives had $1 salaries, so I thought I'd share. Their stocks more than make up for that, but it's good trivia. Bad news for Intel fans: the Core Duo already has 34 bugs in it. It's not like bugs are uncommon in processors, but it's only been like 20 days since its release! Not a good sign. The really big story today was actually that the WB and UPN networks will be merging to try to boost ratings since they're both lagging in that sense, and I'm curious as to what they come up with for a schedule. I wonder if it'll even help much since neither has a whole lot going for them. Lastly, I've just wasted about 15 minutes reading the transcript of Penny Arcade's visit to MIT. It's really good stuff if you're a fan, but it's really long.

I've discussed this already so I'm not going to say much about it, but Disney has now officially announced its acquisition of Pixar, and Steve Jobs will be on the board of directors. So now, you're in the know. Netflix has announced that they'll start renting out HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray movies when they come out later this year, and I believe that they're the first movie rental service to do so. I'm sure the demand won't match it for a while though. The picture you see to the right here is from Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, and you are looking at Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, who are playing two competing magicians at the turn of the 20th century. It has even more impressive cast members and will come out later this year so stay tuned for more. X3 now has a title: The Last Stand. I personally think it sounds pretty bad, but maybe it'll grow on me, who knows. Latino Review has reviewed the script for Killshot, the next movie to be "presented" by Quentin Tarantino, and it sounds like it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Tsk tsk, Tarantino, for tossing around your endorsement so carelessly. Sam Raimi is going to adapt the PS2 game Siren, which was supposed to be a pretty decent horror game (with a banned commercial for being too scary) and I'm sure will take a while to make since he has a few other projects on his slate right now (including Grudge 2). Steve Carrell said a few words to Now Playing about Evan Almighty, and so far I'm not really all that excited about it. Hopefully it'll sound better when we get more information. Lastly, I'm sad to say that Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs) is now deceased at the age of 40. No details on the causes, but there doesn't seem to be any foul play. My prayers go to his family; his great acting will be missed.

I'm gonna go for the Ten on Tuesday this week:

10 Great Things About Being a Kid
10. Most kids have a great metabolism.
9. Your memory actually worked like it should.
8. You actually finished homework early.
7. Having a boundless future.
6. Opening Santa's gifts.
5. Solving the little mysteries.
4. You actually have time for video games.
3. You don't have to worry about female mind games.
2. You get recess.
1. No everyday stress.