Edward Capriolo .com A.B.E. (almost birthday edition)

February 12th, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln also the birthday of Edward Guy Capriolo. I am no longer able to do all the writing I used to do. Honestly I am not sure where all the time goes, I just know that I have less of it. Lately I have been spending my time mastering the deadly arts of programming. Honestly I have not made any significant breakthroughs and moved on to the next level, but I have aquired a nice set of acroynms including CCNA and XML. Right now I am soaking things up kinda like a spung and i leave myself wondering how much better I can get, and more importantly how much is left to learn.

To that end I had an internship for a while. At first I just started out thinking of features to redesign web pages. Then I was thrust into doing the impossible, designing a web site using using SQL and javaservlets things I knew nothing about. For a long while I was frustrated because I was a bit undergunned. Eventually I just purchased some books on XML and Java Servlets, and grinded out code. It was not really pretty code, not very efficient or reusable either, but it was all back end stuff and no one is really the wiser. www.codecphone.com was a successfully completed failure. not that I am not used to that. I mean even in its hay day my site was getting 10 hits. As I mentioned many times before the site www.edwardcapriolo.com was more about filling the void then it was about entertaining a massive audience. I mean it was a ton of fun too, and still is. Finding time to work on it was pretty hard for me. So maybe soon I will do a redesign or something like that, the plans are in the back of my mind. I just need a little bit of cash and a little bit of free time.

but what about the classic stuff did anything happen?

It sure did. In school Val and I never surrendered when it came to programming. I think we most have broke a record for most jokes about operating systems. It was funny, but you just had to be there. The one thing cool about Val is that he was trying to achieve the same "Zen" level I was in programming. Like me I think he wants to learn just about everything possible ( and inherit what he can't learn :). Val is top notch when it comes to programming, and he always gave the "Ed vs Val programming contest" thing a friendly spin-off. Somewhat Like Rocky and Apollo Creed training together, you know they could deliver a can of whoop ass too each other, but they know in some things there is no winner/loser.

Now about me trying to be "Programming champion". Of course I try to be the best I can be, honestly a lot of my self inspiration does come from trying to prove myself to other people. I just hope I never gave anyone the impression that I thought I was better then they were. Honestly having people respect me and my knowledge really makes me feel good. That is what made it so sad being used by a few people. It only happened now and then , and I learned to get over it. People joke about it on occasion, but every joke has some sick humor twist to it.

11:21 PM

11:31 Running out with Nick and Jhonny to celebrate. See you soon 

1:57 AM I am back and I am 21

One thing was I got to hang out with my friend Mike. When I started hanging out with him was kind of in an odd position in my life. I was stuck between trying to be grown up but with nothing grown up about me. To me Mike was kinda like the younger brother I never had. Not that Mike needed my guidance or anything, but I think he struck a balance between friend and protégé, mostly friend. I think I gave him some good advice and he followed most of it except for my advice about avoiding cigarets. It was great to have someone who treated my prospective on life as if I was wise. Also I had fun acting like a kid again throwing fireworks and running like hell. I did see him grow up a little bit, I even feel sad though sometimes, I guess its how you feel when your children grow up and they need you less. Its like a co-dependancy thing you think they rely on you, but it really works both ways.

And what happened to poor Juan? Juan was our friend who worked at Dunkin Doughnuts. Today during my birthday celebration I asked the new guy, "What happnened to Juan?" he told me that he got fired. Poor Juan. He was a cool guy. He did not speak much english. He wanted to go play basketball with us. I cant help wondering why Juan was fired. Was it the free stuff he gave us? We used to give the guy big tips. Maybe the tip cup was too full and they thought he had a mob connection.

"Don't Play me Play Lotto" That was the infamous quote I learned on my trip to time square. I took three trips down to the city this year. One trip was an end of the fall semester trip with te whole wcc crew to go see lord of the rings. The movie was not so good but we had a pretty good time. We even rode the ferris wheel inside toys'r'us.

The second trip was with Marvin. Marvin wanted to take me and show me china town. We just did a little bit of shopping. The best part of the trip was eating at the 69 Chinese restaurant. That's right the street address is 69. They had some good food and I am looking to go back.

The third trip was with Mike to see the Rangers play. Thanks to my bad planning we almost did not make it. However we got into MSG just intime to see the first minute of play. It was pretty intense. It ended up in a tie, but that was only because the refs made an awful call that no one in the stadium let them forget.

This year for me was the year of the baldie. Never in my life did any of my barbers want to cut my hair short. Thanks to marvin that all came to an end. marvin gave me the slick one blade haircut that proved I did not have a lumpy head. It also looked pretty phat and now I get it like that all the time.

Also this year I came up with the classic re write of Stan. In which I wrote to my physics professor as a crazed fan. Honestly I think that song was the reason I passed physics. Did I mention I am graduating this semester?? What am I going to do after that??

I know one thing Ill miss. THat is the study lounge. Computer science has the study loung on lockdown. As Joey would say, " its ova had". I mean this is a crew when you walk in the study lounge at WCC heads turn like you were walking into a wild west saloon. If we dont know you , you get the ice grill. We run the sweetest operation out of that room. We have our own T1 line. I mean the entire click is always there. If for some reason I was being chased I would just run in the lounge and I bet who ever was following me would get ambushed.

Of course more stuff then this happened but who can remember it all?

I am not sure if being 21 has sunk in on me yet. If that is not the case it has sunk in it just does not mean anything. For the future I am trying to keep a strong resolve and live my life like I am always searching for a more profound meaning. I have heard it said that all people who consider themselves enlightened have said that one day they, "WOKE UP", I am not sure I have woken up yet, but I am trying to find out how.

Thanks, Edward Guy Capriolo