aohtsab

I've been struggling as to whether finding the right co-founder for my startup is worth the effort.

I think I'm going to stick it out on my own, at least for now.

EDIT: I originally said I was "on the verge" of bringing out my startup, but the language bothered me. I've given myself a two-week deadline to get the Web site off the ground, and a bit more time after that to get the business actually running. HN taught me I should push myself to get the startup moving, or it'll never happen, and that's what I'm doing now. =)

Six weeks passed this prior semester before I realized I was going to fail all of my classes. Was I focused? Absolutely not.

This past semester I switched into Engineering from a Liberal Arts degree, and I'd never felt so worthless, incompetent and overwhelmed. Everyone had it together, everyone knew absolutely everything—and me, half a year of teaching myself programming in my spare time was showing no results. Except for developing carpal tunnel syndrome.

My roommate was another source of tension. Every day (and I really mean every day), he would talk about how Harvard Law demanded a 4.0, who wore real suits and who wore knock-offs, how School A was so much better than School B, the difference in salary between top-tier and bottom-tier grads, and, to top it off, how much he valued "good ol' American values, like from the 50s".

He flew through his tests and quizzes with straight-As, and I struggled to scrape up a passing grade.

To make matters worse, I started learning shell scripting, further distracting me from homework and classes. Also, I was getting treated for depression.

Anyway, I couldn't find a way to be motivated for anything other than my side projects. I tried turning my homework into a programming puzzle, but it was too late—my grades were too low to salvage.

Taking time off was something that had always been on my mind, but hearing it recommended was the final push I needed.

So I withdrew.

And, surprisingly, the world didn't end—it opened up. I didn't know what to do with all this free time, so I increased my volunteering time at a local school and started job-applying like crazy.

I was interviewed for an IT position and another to cashier, and I got neither. Still don't have a job, still wondering how I'm going to feed my cat, yet not worried.

Don't get me wrong—I'm stressed like hell, but I'm enjoying it. I can literally spend hours coding without feeling guilty.

Finishing college is important to me, however, and I'm set to return in the fall.

Hopefully my work ethic will keep maturing—I'm excited to start again.

GPA definitely isn't on my mind.

I couldn't agree more—I've stopped trying to find a connection between writing poetry and coding; rejecting the notion of a need for continuity/connection in all of my interests has made me a happier person.

digression re: automatically-refreshing kindles

what about a kindloid computer? (say a regular tablet pc but with a kindle monitor) If Murdoch is on target, this would really be the death of journalism.

Installed mutt last night! ...and found out the pextlib1.0 was missing. any clues?

I often feel this way. I try not to tell anyone what I'm working on, because I usually don't finish it—the expectations drive me crazy.

Also, for me, talking about a project is another way to procrastinate actually doing it.

Very true. From what I understood, the data was nothing more than something for the senator to chew on.

You are right: bitching does nothing, yet writing our representatives is almost as bad. I interned for a certain senator a while back—all the letters that people sent in were recorded as tallies in a system, and the responses were typed up by office staff. By the way: most of the letters which were sent in were spam—the same letter with different signatures.

Here's Wikileaks' coverage:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_ACTA_multi-lateral_int...

Maybe it's worth toying with the idea of setting up a private ISP—a pre-emptive underground? This situation is absolutely ridiculous.

This is brilliant. Also, interesting: the Web site said that the father abhorred silence, preferring to listen to classical music. At the bottom, they mentioned that both father and son especially liked The Legendary Pink Dots.

I've included a link to one of their songs; I can just imagine Beksinski painting while listening to this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv5khDimvy8

There's been a push in my area to introduce a similar concept, but with cars. It's based off of the San Francisco model:

http://www.citycarshare.org

Anyone from the Bay area have any feedback?