The year has gone by so quickly – I could never have imagined even half of the things that happened this year. Drawing from experience, I can only infer that I will have absolutely no idea what events may transpire over the next 365 days.

However, that is not to say that I don’t have any hopes for the upcoming year. I’m going to be moving down to my new apartment in June, on the first day of Senior Week. I’m fairly nervous because I have never lived in my own place before, and I feel like I will be lonely and unable to take care of myself. However, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to have fun even when I’m by myself and be able to better myself while I’m doing it. Maybe this means cooking a fancy dinner once a week for practice, or making myself follow a work out regimen so I don’t get fat.

Another hope of mine is that I can find a good hobby to do in the evenings or weekends. I still do miss singing, perhaps an opportunity will come up where I can begin singing again. A choir? Another A Cappella group? Or who knows, maybe I could even be in a band! Dream big, they say, right? Maybe I’ll pick up an interesting sport, like rock climbing, or biking.

I’ve been thinking about getting better speakers. I love the Creatives that I own now, but they’re about 7 years old and the remote is starting to die on them. I want to get a home audio receiver and probably stereo speakers. It’s going to take a lot of research (and money), but hopefully I will have the ability to gather both of those in the near future. Luckily, I received a $100 GC to an electronics store, so I’ll be able to take advantage of that. Even with that, I’m guessing I’ll spend about 400 total.

Of course, work is going to be a big aspect of my life. I think my biggest goal for the next year is to absorb and to learn as much as I can about the working world. After 16 years in the school environment, I will be finally putting whatever skills I’ve learned to the test, and I certainly hope that they are up to par. I’m also aiming to be more up front when I have a question, rather than spending excessive amounts of time to complete confusing tasks.

Finally, I want to be truer to myself (cliché, of course. This should be true for everyone) but also to my friends. There have been a ton of new people in my life this past year, and I want to make sure that I can keep being friends with them, and continue to make even more friends.

Well we’ve finally come to the last day of this long journey. Thirty posts in Thirty days – I wasn’t sure that I could do it. Even though I was unable to totally follow all the rules, I at least made sure that I had a post for each “sleep cycle” that I had. Thanks everyone so much for reading my blog – I hope you’ve learned something interesting about me, or that I caused you to think of something in your own life.

Thanks for reading Byronasaurus!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

May 2009
BME 307 Hell, Meeting LIFE group people, 2nd Allnighter of college, Dillo Day (Decemberists, Tally Hall, Mike Posner, N.E.R.D), Discovered Dropbox,

June 2009
Finished Junior year, Senior Week (Charis, MCA, Portillos, Dutch Blitz), Missed flight home, CCC Annual Concert, MJ Passes, HTC Hero Announced

July 2009
Move to Berkeley, New roomate!, BASE Begins, Lots of new friends!, Meeting up with Berkeley buddies, School with the Sis!, Visit to SunPower and Cisco

August 2009
Second time I meet Wayne!, Internship with Aruba Networks, Hang out with Stephanie for Ramen, Breakfast with Carrie and Kenny, Yogurt and always lots of fun with Katie, Meet up with Jerry in Mt View

September 2009
Visiting new baby cousin in LA, Panda Bread with Lanvy and Kristine, TC50 setup and volunteer (Hangouts with Maya, Dan, Leo, Fan, Nik!), Zune HD Released, Back to start Senior year, LIFE Group (even more friends!)

October 2009
Starting Job search, BME 390’s idiocy begins, John Legend Concert (Schapiro’s Inaugural Ball), SWE Industry Day (First encounter with Pepsico), NU Wins Homecoming, At Michael+Christine’s introduction

November 2009
Pepsico Interview day, Slivka, Thanksgiving dinner, Get my job offer

December 2009
Finals, Going home, No ski trip, Boeing 787’s first flight, Christmastime at Squaw Valley

January 2010
New Years party (Tiff, Carrie, Kenny, Myles, Tina), CES (Meet up with Calvin and see Pauley Perette)

February 2010
Spending tons of hours in 355 lab, making new friends (Brian, Meredith – woo lab), Celebrasia, David Choi concert

March 2010
NUvention 1st quarter pitch, Spring Break Cruise – Bahamas! (Messed up flight plans, lots of food, karaoke bar daily, Steven’s B-day karaoke), Calvin’s BWW Birthday

April 2010
Apartment searching, TASC Listening Party (Cynthia Lin, Vienna Teng, Shanghai Restoration Project), Stacy’s surprise birthday, Chicago surprise niceness (Charlotte, Tim, Teddy, David), NUVC Pitch Competition, Passion Pit Concert

May 2010
Lots of birthdays, Tiramisu for Vania, Squishable for me, Tango Sur for Matt, Publican for Alan, Dillo Day (Regina Spektor, Guster, Super Mash Bros, Nelly), Signed apartment lease

A lot of new things this year – thanks everyone for making it amazing. There are about 2 weeks left of school, and then I’ll be shifting into a whole new life again. Cheers to change!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

The first picture of me at NU. Fling at the Field Museum – 9/2006. The first group of friends I met at NU: Joyce, Sandra, Nick, Yee Hoong, and Christina. It’s been a long 4 years, kids, and I would have to say that it has been pretty awesome.

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

So my method of music listening, as some of you know, is by album. Therefore, in this case, the top ten is really unfairly weighted towards Jason Mraz, I’ll just write about the top 10 albums. Since I don’t use iTunes, I’ll just pull from my last.fm charts. Each item is followed by the number of plays

Top 10 albums

1. Owl City – Ocean Eyes (397)
2. Leona Lewis – Echo (286)
3. Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) (282)
4. Passion Pit – Manners (235)
5. Mika – Life in Cartoon Motion (229)
6. Frankmusik – Complete Me (215)
7. OneRepublic – Dreaming Out Loud (208)
8. Fergie – The Dutchess (194)
9. 周杰倫 – 范特西 (Jay Chou – Fantasy) (194)
10. Lady Gaga – The Fame (184)
11. Cobra Starship – Hot Mess (Deluxe Edition) (180)

OK so Lady Gaga is there twice, so I’ll stick up Cobra Starship there as well. So sue me. These numbers seems really low. Ah, who knows. Other interesting tidbits: Since installing Windows 7/Foobar2k in December, I’ve played 4wk, 2d, 15:45:18 and counting minutes of music! This amuses me for some reason.

As usual, if anything up in that list interests you, ask me about it!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

I guess this prompt isn’t really that good, since accidents aren’t really weird. I guess I’ll just talk about any major problem/accident that I’ve had, in chronological order.

1. I broke my arm in 4th grade. I was on one of those gliders that you hold onto and it rolls down a track. I think I was trying to do that “slam” thing, where you kind of launch it to the end. I unfortunately did not land on my feet, and instead landed on my wrist. Both bones in my right arm were broken, and I remember distinctly what my arm looked like, where my arm was parallel to itself, through the plastic inflatable splint I was administered. It didn’t hurt, and I didn’t cry, though now I’m going to think that it was due to both shock and the adrenaline. I got a cast, and wore it for a while through the rest of fourth grade. I also went on a trip to New York. I got lots of people to sign my cast, including Tara Lipinski and some firefighters from the FDNY. Pretty cool

2. I set my toaster on fire sometime towards the end of elementary school. I had put some girl scout cookies on a cookie sheet, but I think I left the foil too long and it may have touched one of the heating elements, and it started a fire. The first fire extinguisher I tried was empty, and the second one blasted the fire out, but also shot some cookies out of the oven onto the counter. We’ve still got a burn spot where the cookie landed.

3. I fractured my ankle in 7th grade. I had a rolling backpack when I was going to school, and strapped it onto a bike rack on the back of my bike. It kind of messed up my balance, and one day as I was biking to school, my foot slipped off the pedal and it dragged in front of the pedal until i hit a white picket fence. Several people helped me there: A classmate who I always saw walking to school saw me fall, and stayed with me to make sure I was ok. She brought my bike to school when I was picked up. I ended up being really good friends with her, which was cool. A teacher that biked past me often also saw, and reported to the school. The school psychologist was giving a talk to the health class, but he actually ran out of class and carried me to a near by classmate’s mom’s car. Crazy!

4. Finally, something not personally injurious! My junior year of high school, I parked my car on the street since I hadn’t purchased a parking permit. However, some construction was going on across the street. My poor van (NETGEAR!) was backed into by one of the company’s vehicles. A semi. I was left with a large dent in the side of my car (about 1ft d) I actually didn’t realize it until later that week, and then didn’t realize that they left a note until it rained and I used the wipers on my car. But, it was fixed, and my car looks as good as new!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

12:00 AM – Woot Off! Really, what else needs to be said

2:00 AM – Purchased my domain name! I’m really quite excited! You can now get to my blog from byronasaurus.com. It is a bit silly, but I like it, and I hope you do too! Unfortunately, that URL is only a redirect, but I’m working on getting it to be the top level!

9:30 AM – Woke up this morning, fairly late. I had this really interesting dream. I had a really long “brick loft” style studio, with a gallery window. It was on the first floor and right next to a cafe i frequented often. Man, if only that was my place – that was really cool! Unfortunately, dream. Internet-ed for a while, because that is what I love.

11:00 AM – Got hungry, made myself three slices of wheat toast with Nutella. Seriously, if you don’t like Nutella – oh wait, that’s nobody! Ha! Watched NCIS: LA. It was dramatic, as usual. Still fun, though.

12:30 PM – Some more internet! There is a lot of internet to do this week, because TechCrunch Disrupt is currently happening in NY! I’m not really following it as closely as I would follow TC50, though, by virtue of “I’m not there.” Also, school kind of takes a lot of time.

1:00 PM – Showered, because having classes late in the day allow me to do it. Also, because I was hoping that someone would want to play tennis with me in the morning. No such luck!

1:30 PM – Leftover pizza from previous nights! It actually was really quite delicious. Pizza is always a success, I think. Well, not always, but it is easy to be a success. Also watched some Digimon: Data Squad, because that is how I roll. Also, because I’ve watched the first 4 seasons earlier this quarter. I’m not really making myself look to good here am I?

3:00 PM – Went to Tech to scan my drivers license for some stuff. Bumped into Chiarng napping outside, because evidently it is too cold inside Tech. Apparently he has class with Ryan, Mike, and perhaps Erick. Also found Zach, John, and Stacy in Tech Lab, and passed by Grace in her Bio lab. So many people!

3:30 PM – Had a guest lecture for NUvention – the Vice President of Product Development at Groupon, Suneel Gupta! He’s a pretty cool guy, and he had a lot of good words to say to us about the entrepreneurship space. He was very adamant about his last point: When making decisions, go ahead and take that risk. Very characteristic of this generation of entrepreneurs – all the good ones stick their necks out.

7:00 PM – Dinner cooking time! On the menu tonight: Mustard Pan Friend Detroit Style Chicken and Mixed Vegetables with Goose Island Summertime. The chicken isn’t really that fancy – its the same hot sauce as last time, and chicken breast that was pan fried in mustard instead of BBQ/Basted with honey.

9:00 PM – Prepared the tour for my team’s (Enthusiast Apps) demonstration for a client tomorrow. I went through and found various interesting tidbits (ok, maybe just one) that would be useful for demo.

11:03 PM – Now. I’ll probably be up for another 2-3 hours, just poking around at the internet and/or homework. I need to plan the remainder of the week too, since lots of fun stuff is coming up!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

So I do not own a pet. However, I think that if I were to, I would want something that looked like this:

He looks confused! I like Schnauzers because they look fluffy but kind of distinguished. It’s like they have the equivalent of a crazy handlebar mustache on a person. Or, if I decide not to get a dog, maybe I will want something like this:

But, I don’t want my cat to be mean. Or to run away all the time. I would probably prefer to have a funny cat like one on YouTube. Or maybe, one of THESE!!

Ok maybe not that.

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

There is an extremely high likelihood that I have sent this to you before. This is a British chap named Alex Day. He sings songs and makes amusing videos under his YouTube handle "Nerimon”. He has a series of videos where he reads the lyrics of various top songs in the UK and comments on them. Some of them are just terrible (N-Dubz: Sexercise!) In this case, because it is Lady Gaga, it is a combination of “oh this is good” and “hello I am crazy!”

Actually I only found out about this guy because he reads/paraphrases Twilight on YouTube. It is really quite amusing. I’ve embedded only Ch. 1, but he’s recorded up to ~Ch 14. I rather enjoy watching him. Also, because he is British, I like to listen to him talk. it is amusing!

Also he does this interesting thing where he has people draw the faces of playing cards for him. That way, he’ll have a complete, original deck of cards from friends and people that he has met! I actually would like to do that as well, so perhaps look forward to that in the future.

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

So, I’m going to be shameless today and plug a personal project that I and a team of 6 other NU people are working on.

We’re making a web platform that allows businesses to create audio tours for the iPhone. Businesses can mark points of interest on a Google Map and upload relevant content using a simple (and might I say, attractive) web interface.

We’ve got everything set up so that the tours are automatically generated for the iPhone. The app uses GPS to tell the user where they are, which helps users to select which audio clip they’d like to listen to.

It’s definitely still in progress. But I think we’re moving along pretty well, and things are really looking nice. We’ll be launching soon, so keep an eye out so you can download the app and try it out for yourself! It will be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, though you won’t get GPS with the Touch. Also, check out the website at http://enthusiastapps.com and try out the web platform. Leave some feedback, and your comments may directly affect the changes we make to the app!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days

Ga-In of Brown Eyed Girls. She has the most amazing eyes. It is the crazy. Also, when she smiles, it just seems so genuine, it makes me melt. I wish that I had those features – I feel like I just appear really disingenuous sometimes, even when I’m trying to be totally honest about my happiness.

Matthew Mitcham – Australian Olympic Gold Medalist Diver. He is a diver. By definition, he has a good body that I would probably kill for. Makes me wish that I had been a diver, been really good, and then gotten famous. But maybe more on that later.

Short post today, by virtue of me having been playing this evening (woo pizza!) I do believe that my apartment was cleaner after people left than before they came. Awesome!

For more info: 30 Things in 30 Days