Since graduting from the wonderful University of Washington, everything seemed to just cruise along. I’ve moved back home over on the east side and it has been the most unmotivating experience ever. It reminded me of why I don’t live here. I don’t really do much of anything except eat, sleep and watching a ton of Food Network. Not exactly the ideal post college lifestyle. Fear not though because it really has only been a little more than 2 weeks since walking down the soggy lane where I was presented my emtpy pleather portfolio signifying the milestone of intellectual achievement, if you can call it that.

Anyways, aside from the meandering, I’ve been spending late nights as usual trying to set myself up as a competitive candidate for employment. Right before graduating, three companies reached out to me and expressed interest in my skills. Teague, a product design consulting firm was the first. The position is a Flash design prototyping position. What that means is I take pictures of what software looks like and make them interactive. Valve - as in Counter Strike and Half Life Valve - showed me around their headquarters in downtown Bellevue. I had the privilege to sit in on one of their design discussions, which was quite interesting. The position was actually one that flexed between a lot of responsibilities, but their immediate needs were in marketing and communication (web design). Last to reach out is Artefact Group. This small firm helps software comapnies like Microsoft conduct research and create prototypes of how execution should be accomplished. There are only 11 or 12 people (I was told both) and about a year old. However, the experience in the house per person is anywhere between 5 to 10 or more years. The position I would primarily be researching people and how we can integrate software into their lives without frustrating them (read: Apple).

Each place has been extremely impressive and it’s great to know that there is so much talent in Seattle. It’ll be a hard decision to make no doubt. My professor, Axel, is happy to hear that I’ll still be in town so it’s also good to know I have his support.

Wednesday I’ll be flying out to Amsterdam meeting up with Richard aka “Giggles” Paterson and two other hooligans to experience what everyone should experience, life. Ha. I just picked up the last of the supplies I needed before venturing off into manhood and I plan to keep everyone informed of the misadventures via this blog. I’ll be creating an RSS feed for those who need’em, but otherwise, this will be showing up on Facebook anyways for the majority of my readership, all -9 of you. Be sure to check up on my Flickr account too. I’m going to try to do some moderate uploading as the days pass, but not too much since I need to take more than share for the time being.

Otherwise, I will hoepfully be seeing a lot of you when I return August 5th to share forgotten stories and and photos that would make any man cry.

One final though: I miss school already, I miss the house and I can’t wait to move out into my own place.

Updated
Here is the RSS feed to any and all entries to my time abroad: Travel Log [Yahoo Pipes]

Some questions come to mind like “What it looks like? Who is the carrier provider? What can it do?” and most importantly, “How much does it cost me?”

In short: Looks like an iPod; either all carriers or Verizon/Sprint or through Apple itself; it is a mp3 phone with Apple infused minimalistic design; price points at $249 and $499 (reportedly).

However, I’d like to ask that you really think about what you do with your cell phone currently, what you like about your phone or past phones you’ve had and what features you don’t really use that you thought you would. Leave comments.

Saturday, January 20, Schedule
11 a.m. Park Dedication
Noon Josephine Howell
1 p.m. North Indian Dance by Archana Kumar/South Indian Dance by Adhithi Verkat
1:30 p.m. The Radost Folk Ensemble
2 p.m. RED HOTZ
3 p.m. Gansango’s Mandinka Music Trio
3:30 p.m. Nu Black Arts West Theatre
4 p.m. Acrobatics by Circus Contraption’s Jason Williams and Evelyn Bittner
4:30 p.m. Heather Rastovac Iranian Dance
4:30 p.m. Bishnutz on Buckets w/ Electronics
5 p.m. Choklate
6 p.m. Sabzi (from Blue Scholars)
7 p.m. Breakdancing by the Massive Monkees
8 p.m. Sabzi (from Blue Scholars)

I think I’ll be there for the entire time taking pictures of all the events and sculptures. Drop me a line if any of you are interested in coming and we can check it out together.

Olympic Sculpture Park