Mike Rundle's Weblog

Philadelphia? Okay!

My good buddy Adam is now on co-op at McNeil pharma in Philadelphia, PA. This past weekend, my friend Dan and I drove there to hang out, hit the beach in South Jersey, etc.

I took a whole bunch of pictures, check them out!

Bienvenido a Virginia

After almost 8 hours of travel time, I finally made it to my new home for the summer — a townhouse in Fairfax, VA.

Last time I drove down here it only took me 6.5 hours (from Rochester) and that was with little traffic and gratuitous amounts of speed. Now that my parents were following me and we were driving on Memorial Day weekend, needless to say it took a bit longer :)

Right now I'm sitting on my deck, with my Wifi-enabled laptop in front of me, and not a care in the world. 1 o'clock in the morning and 70 degrees, what's better than that?

I brought my dad's 5MP Sony Cybershot down for the summer, so expect more pictures on this blog than ever before. I took a few for a soon-to-be-written post, but tonight I want to show you what my bedroom currently looks like:

Note the blow-up air mattress .000001% inflated, the Powerbook resting on the camping chair, the G5 crying in the corner from lack of network access, "A New Kind of Science" by Stephen Wolfram (thick black book next to red bag) just dying to be read, "Time Travel in Einstein's Universe" peeking out of the duffel bag, and a box full o' clothes with no home.

This summer's off to a great start already!

400 Miles

Greetings from Virginia!

Well, I lied. Right now, I'm back in New York State at my computer in my apartment — I really did mean to write this blog entry while down in Virginia, but I just didn't have any time :)

I was down in Sterling, VA for an interview at Northrop Grumman, a major government IT contractor. I'm sure you've heard of them. A big shoutout goes to my friend Heather for letting me stay at her house! You're the best!

If I end up working at NG this summer, I'd be designing user interfaces for military missile defense early warning systems. I could tell you more about the software, but then I'd have to kill you.

Also: My résumé (PDF, 80k) and portfolio (PDF, 900k) I brought down there.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful Deadly

Hey guys, in case you don't know, here is a picture of the current weather situation in the United States, and where I currently am is highlighted via Photoshop.

According to weather.com and the sounds of my apartment walls apparently crashing in around me every three seconds, Rochester NY currently has sustained winds of 44 mph with gusts up to 65+, with snow coming down heavily and being blown around like it was weightless... err... wait a sec.

Overturned

On I-294 this morning (I travel northbound and get off on the Touhy Ave exit), the traffic was terrible.

About a mile south of the I-90 exit, traffic came to a complete standstill and I glanced over to what southbound traffic was doing. I noticed 10 or so guys with ties on standing around a car that was flipped on its roof. On further inspection, it turned out to be an Illinois State Police car!

The 6900 Minute Journey

At approximately 10pm tonight, central time, I will begin the trek back to my beloved New York State.

Driving from Rochester to Batavia, IL isn't so bad. Leaving after class ending late on a Wednesday night (last Spring quarter) sucks a little bit though. After leaving my four-hour Usability Testing class, I'd hop in my car (already packed, BTW), and drive off to nearest I-90 onramp, hoping to catch a good song on the radio.

I'd fill up my tank at around mile 15 on my journey — the rest stop that is right after Exit 46 on the New York State Thruway, Westbound. From there, it was a mere 45 minutes to the beginning of Buffalo, and after that, an hour and 15 minutes more to land me on the NY/PA line.

Three and a half hours after I started, I'd arrive at the outskirts of Cleveland, ready to merge with I-80 traffic. If you, or someone you love has driven through Cleveland, ask them about the dual 90-degree turns set directly into the 10 lane highway ;)

Ohio... then Indiana... then CHICAGO. The boring states blur together, and then you somehow arrive in civilization shortly before Portage, IN when I have to get out of my "driving zone" and realize that I have to start paying attention to highway markers.

Tonight, however, will be a different story. I'm driving Eastbound, an even worse journey because of how bad driving through Pennsylvania sucks. At the end of my journey, I want to be stimulated and excited to arrive at my destination, and all PA does is make we want to fly through there and finally get to NYS.

Instead of driving into Rochester, I have to keep on truckin' for another two full hours to reach Utica, and by then, I'll be dead tired.

Driving at night is fun though, because contrary to popular belief, time goes by faster than it would if you were driving during the day. With nothing to look at I usually zone out and somehow arrive mentally in NY.