Friday, January 28, 2005

6:11 PM// Know what I've gotten into lately? Sleeping 'til noon.

Since I lost/discarded/quit my job last year, I've revived a much needed practice: sleeping until noon. No, sadly I have not. I interviewed at RTI International a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still waiting to hear back. In the meantime, I've been keeping busy. Katie makes me get up each morning by 8 or 9am to take her to school. Despite my morning grumblings to her, I really appreciate the forced awakening. Otherwise, I would sleep until noon, thus starting with a half-over day. It's nice to do two or three things and still discover that "morning" is still going on.

Last week I started my first true freelance web design contract with NCSU, working on the College of Engineering Safety Committee's website. It's decent work; not a life career move, but something I enjoy and it's money. In the last week I was inspired to revamp my own website, as will be evident to frequenters of this site.

In addition to not sleeping 'til noon, freelance web design, and writing rants I've also been working on my own flavor of physics engine middleware. Middleware is a term for software that is nothing by itself but nicely compliments other software to create a full package. Examples of middleware include graphics engines like Gamebryo and other physics engines like Havok and Meqon. My physics engine would be marketable to video game designers, but (hopefully) accurate enough for researchers as well. This is my ultimate backup plan in the event that I fail to find gainful employment. I will develop and market a physics engine while supporting myself with freelance web design and/or computational research assistantship goodness, not unlike my good buddy and former roommate Alex.