Tech Life

Hey family,
   So, I read a really interesting article on piracy that I thought you might like.  It's only a couple pages long but it makes some really neat points. http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2003-09-07-1.html
        Other than that, life is dandy out here for Corey and I.  I have decided that I want to go to graduate school, and possibly even get a PhD.  My long term plans would still be to work in industry, just at a higher pay scale essentially.  At the moment I am mainly interested in getting my masters, and the only real excitement about a PhD is the prospect of being Dr. DeBaltzo, so we'll see what I think.  This is all still a couple years away, but I have started taking the time to talk to some Professors about doing research with them which would help me get a good jump on my graduate work, potentially shaving up to a year off of my masters program.  I'm not quite sure what I want to research at this point, but there is a Professor that I really like who studies software from a social perspective and how it is the people and the social structure of the company that affects how software will turn out.  What this means is if you consider a few large companies, like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, and think about how they all do great things and create great products, but they are incredibly different.  This difference lies beyond simple differences in how the software looks and feels, but down to how things were released, how the architecture of the company affected how they did what they did, and why.  That might seem a bit vague, but it sounds potentially very interesting to me and I think it could be a lot of fun to be a part of that.  We shall see what happens on that front however.

      I've been all over music lately, and have really been digging Spotify.  I just recently learned that they are based in Sweden, and I'm thinking about applying there at some point and seeing how I could be a part of that.  It would be really neat to be in a software company that works directly with music.  I also really believe in the product which can make a huge difference.  I got a 64gig expansion hard drive for my phone and have been filling my phone with music and it has been great to listen to everything I want to at any time.  I've been listening lately to a lot of Queen and The Band.  It's funny how music kind of goes in cycles in life, how there can be times that you listen to a certain song 100 times in a week, and then you don't listen to it again for 5 years.  Music is kind of like a really good book in that regards, it can inspire emotions, relationships, and really powerful contemplation.

    So this weekend is our 3rd Annual Murder Mystery party which will take place on the Titanic.  I am Captain John Smith, and the other characters are just various persons from the voyage, including the unsinkable Molly Brown!  I think it will be a lot of fun, we invited 3 other couples over to join us for this and we'll be doing a nice dinner and playing the game.  We're having my last mission companion Daniel Carlisle and his wife Shelby. A couple that I have worked with for a while now, who also came with us to Yaya and Grandpa Dicks house for conference, Eric and Iris Seaman.  The third couple is a guy that I've had many classes with and works with me as well.  We've spent a lot of time playing games with them.  They are Dean and Katie Lebaron and have a 3 month old son, Jared.

Alright, well I love you all, I'm off to class now!

Max