Internship pondering

In less than two weeks, I will be going to my internship that I am very excited for. Some of the skills that I anticipate to use are assembling computers and problem solving in Windows 7. A question that’s been on my mind as I approach internship will be my commute. I hope that on the dry run to my internship, that I have no problems getting there. Another question I’ve wondered about is what kind of tasks will I have on my first day and if I will have training.

I hope to work in a business casual and friendly environment that is fast paced but not frenetically so. The kind of manager I hope to work under is attentive to detail and provides feedback that helps me grow.

I plan to stand out at my internship by being accountable by delivering my best every day and showing I have initiative and a hunger for learning all that I can. My plan for after my internship is to have hopefully earned a position but if not, I want to go back to college with a renewed direction and motivation that I’ve earned at Year Up.

What goal?

I have been saving up money for a new computer ever since spending everything I had on a very entertaining concert on October 25th. Rest assured, this was a very necessary upgrade, as my previous computer was over 8 years old. It has been quite the process with a lot of research. Initially, I had decided on a pre built till I saw how much money I would save by just getting the parts and building it with my brother. I was also influenced in part by some of my more tech savvy colleagues.

Getting all of the parts was a bit of a hassle but that's to be expected when dealing with multiple delivery companies. Thankfully, FedEx didn't hurl the box on my patio or in my face. Everything else went rather well. I got more and more excited when each package got here over the period of a few days.

When my brother and I actually got to building it, we ran into a few tricky problems. The CPU cooler and the RAM wouldn't fit together. I was just about to just install 1 fan instead of 2 when my brother made it work by moving the fan up the heatsink a few notches. Besides some annoying cable management and hard to get places for screwing in the motherboard, I learned a lot and enjoyed it. It was an amazing feeling when it booted up.

What I didn't enjoy however, was trying to install Windows 7. I tried using the free student version of Win 7 Pro that I got from CCSF but there was a very headache inducing device driver problem that almost made me tear my hair out. It didn't seem like the download from CCSF was complete, so I had to get another copy, burned it to a DVD and voila! Worked first time.

Gaming with max settings on a 1920x1200 resolution might very well convert me from consoles. Besides that, what's a new computer without a nifty new executive chair? Had to get that too.

Sick since the 26th

This break was all well and good till about after Christmas. Don't get me wrong, though. It's been very relaxing, even if I've been confined in a bed for most of the time. However, I can't let whatever I have bring me down, as it sure wasn't the highlight of my break. I downed as much swill they call cough syrup and cough drops to get what needed to get done, done.

For one thing, I ordered a lot of packages this break, as I had finally reached a goal of mine.

Christmas in Hercules

It was great being able to see my mom's family in Hercules on Christmas. Due to car problems, my dad was only able to drop my mom, my brother and I off. I'm glad I went though, since it was reasonably entertaining. Hanging out with my cousins, who are 2nd or 1st once removed or something was fun. We played a funky form of charades with the adults.

My aunt Delores got all of the women matching leopard print pajamas, which she wanted them all to wear and take pictures in. That kind of weirdness was worth it alone, along with the amazing leche flan.

Internship Readiness

Someone who is internship ready has qualities like adaptability, responsibility, dependability, and perhaps most importantly, a hunger for new learning experiences. Since each company has its own atmosphere and culture, one must be willing to be adaptable to a new environment in order to work well with others and excel. Responsibility and dependability go hand in hand, the intern knows what's expected of them and builds trust with others by being consistent, which in turn, adds value to the company. Most importantly, always striving to learn new things shows initiative, open mindedness and growth.

I plan to demonstrate internship readiness for Module 3 by striking a balance of making myself available to any of my colleagues that require assistance as well as giving them the respect of working individually. I will also continue to build onto all of the various skills I've learned or yet to learn, whether they are professional or technical.

One thing I plan to change for this module is my time management priorities. I have lost many hours of sleep due to this kind of procrastination and even though I've completed all of my assignments, it is something I need to improve in order to be more organized and focused.

Hack! Choppety chop!

When to comes to a profession, I’ve never had employment per say but I have had my share of volunteer work and the occasional odd job. In terms of actually earning anything, the only work was during high school, where I was paid 10 dollars an hour to essentially hack a gargantuan amount of weeds. My boss was a former friend’s father, who needed able bodies to chop away the overgrown mass and set up something in the backyard that I can’t remember for the life of me. He hired me and a friend. My weapon…or tool of choice was a machete sorely in need of the grindstone. You wouldn’t think it at first, considering the dullness but it was pretty fun just hacking away at all that brush. It was frustrating though when the occasional weed just wouldn’t go down.

I was grateful for the work and the money to be sure. It was just something on the side to do, for about 3 hours every couple days. One of the perks was being able to take breaks a lot and use the refrigerator as a resource. Ultimately though, the weeds ran out and we switched gears to more detailed work. We started laying down some sort of piping that I’m not sure what was for. It was a very ephemeral  experience that seemed to end as soon as it began. Perhaps, he couldn’t pay us anymore because we certainly didn’t finish whatever do-it-yourself project he had in store. In terms of skills or lessons I learned, honestly there weren’t many. I suppose following instructions and some communication at times. For the most part, it was solitary labor. He told us to get rid of it. I would just put on some Maiden and go to town.

The Depressing Truth

No matter the time period, one thing that you can always be sure of is the growing disparity between the wealthy and poor. Diego Rivera’s mural, Frozen Assets and The Occupy Movement share a lot of similarities. Frozen Assets is composed of three distinct juxtaposed parts. At the top is the easily recognizable skyline of New York but the colors and overall atmosphere is bleak and dystopian. Moreover, numerous cranes are visible but construction seems to have halted. Countless people, who look more like nondescript shadows are crowded into a station platform. This theme continues on down, as a steel shelter makes up the middle piece of the mural. Several men, faceless and equally nondescript, resemble corpses as they sleep in mass with an ominous looking figure standing as guard.

Even today, Frozen Assets is a metaphor to the events of present day with the Occupy Movement. In the mural, the people are dwarfed by the very thing they helped create, since most the labor in industry comes from the masses but progress can’t continue without the workers, hence the “frozen” construction. This is similar to the We Are The 99% basis of the Occupy Movement, since they also make up the vast majority compared to the 1% of the wealthy and are the main cog in how society functions.

The shelter in the middle piece resembles the “shantytowns” during the Great Depression and the Occupy Movement correlates to this with the tents they set up in protest. The recent violence is akin to the Bonus Army Conflict of 1932, albeit on a smaller scale. The comparisons with the mural, Frozen Assets from 80 years ago and the present day Occupy Movement is quite telling in how society still has an ever growing gap between the rich and poor.