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(COOLLIST) Notes from a Tech Grad

Hello, (CL)ers.  It's now two days after my graduation from Tech,
and I felt an urge to write about a few things.

First, as much as I'll miss the academic environment, it sure felt good
to "get out".  Academia can be a lot of fun and very stimulating, but I
need a break from that kind of work.  I need a chance to go out and
apply the knowledge and experience I've gained.  Immediately entering
graduate school just wasn't going to fill that need, so I bailed. I do
look forward to starting a masters program in a year or two, but for
now, I want to go do something neat.

In this case, doing something neat means going to Austin.  To those of
you who have never been to Austin, I'll summarize: imagine a chunk of
Silicon Valley detached from California and placed in the middle of
Texas.  That's Austin.  They even have their own fault line, like the CA
residents.  It is a very high tech area: lots of computer companies
(Motorola, Dell, IBM, Sematech, AMD), lots of Internet providers
(io.com, eden.com), lots of smart people (UTexas.edu w/ 50,000
students).  I'm very excited about becoming a part of this community.

My job in Austin is neat, although not TREMENDOUSLY-neat.  I'm a CAD
software engineer for the paging products VLSI design group.  That means
that I'll be developing and adapting software that will be used by the
designers of the computer chips used in Motorola's advanced pagers. There
is a lot of growth in this area, and I hope my responsibilities will
also allow me to work with other segments in the paging R&D structure.
We'll have to see how it all works out.

Other neat stuff I intend to do in Austin include joining the Austin
chapter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, being active in the
Austin Cypherpunks, start a cycling regimen, and meeting lots of
interesting people.

This is going to be a big change.  I'm looking forward to it, but the
shock of it is going to have an effect on me.  However, I've dealt
with change before.  When I was packing things today, I found some old
journals I had written last spring and summer.  When I read through
them, I found it hard to recognize the person who had written those
pages.  I've done a lot of growing lately, and its not going to stop
anytime soon.

Enough of the seriousness.  I'm going to be flying to Minnesota on
Wednesday until Sunday.  I'll be leaving for Texas on the 21st, to
arrive on the 22nd.  I hope to have my apartment set up by July 1st,
and you all should be getting contact info from me then.  I'll also
be working on some more humorous (CL) pieces to send out soon.

Finally, big thanks to those whom I got to see during my last week at
Tech.  I'll miss all of you, and I hope I can see you again in the
future.

Love to you all!
--
This signature is a         | Benjamin L. Combee
(COOLLIST) exclusive        | combee@techwood.org
from the Combee collection. | http://www.yak.net/combee/