I have been seriously remiss in posting, but I can assure you it hasn't been for lack of subject matter.
For one thing, work as progressed merrily in the two-plus weeks I've clocked so far. This summer I am doing a lot more project planning and a lot less programming. I have spent most of my time gathering functional requirements from other employees, learning about the business process, trying to see the big picture, etc. That may change as the projects progress, but so far it has been very different than my previous two summers. I have enjoyed it for the most part, and I'm learning all sorts of new things about project management that I'm sure will be useful down the road.
After work I've been going to the YMCA. Unlike last summer when I went in the evenings, this summer I have been going directly there from work. I have found that planning my day around that extra hour has been a huge motivator. I have already seen and felt a change from just two weeks ago. I haven't checked, but I'm sure I've achieved the 200-pound bench max I had hoped for. Update: I checked and I'm not quite there yet.
While lifting a week and a half ago, I ran into an old high school friend. We got talking and somehow got on the subject of Poker. I mentioned I played often at school, and he invited me to join a game that very night with a bunch of other high school friends. It was my first real-money game (don't worry, parents, it was cheap), and though I lost after a hard-fought battle, I thoroughly enjoyed playing with a new group of people.
I also got a dose of culture last weekend. The week before, I invited Michael, Eric, and Mel to go a local art fair. We drove about thirty minutes only to find a completely empty park. "This can't be right," I, master of the obvious said, "There's no one here." Then Mel noticed the sign announcing the actual dates of the fair: one week later. That was a prime Brett moment that I'm sure I will hear about every time I invite any of them to go anywhere. We agreed to try again, but by the next weekend (last weekend), Michael was in Spain for his study abroad summer and Mel had paint her house or mop a floor or something similarly mundane. Not to be deterred, Eric and I decided to go anyway. We managed to see an hour and a half's worth of absolutely amazing stuff before an Indiana spring rain set in. We were both reminded of the rainstorm at the end of last summer's camping trip.
The most recent event took place last Thursday when I came downstairs to find my father playing a new PS2. I was spellbound. Never would I have expected to find a Playstation in my house, much less one bought by my dad. Unsurprisingly, thanks to my admitted love of video games, I have fallen in love with that black box. Dad and I have been racing each other in Need for Speed, and I've already bought my first PS2 game. This has led me to the conclusion that I will definitely need to buy my own system before heading back to school in the fall.
