The Beginning of the End

Winter term is coming to a close in about a week and then, after a week off for Spring Break, I'm back for my sixth and final term of Grad School. And what are my post-graduate plans, you ask? Well, to answer that, here's a little story...

In one course this term, we were given an assignment to identify a e-business problem relating to web design and/or acquiring additional hardware and software support. I called on my contacts at Intel to hook me up with a project. (Side note: Sounds nice, doesn't it? I mean, to have work available upon request. I just sent a couple of emails and before too long I was assigned to a project. Oh, its good to have friends!)

However, since this was to be a team project, I needed to gauge my teammates level of interest in working for Intel. Surprisingly, they were actually opposed to it! So, after discussing my situation with the prof, I agreed to work on some other, less demanding project for class and the Intel thing morphed into an independent course study scheduled for Spring term!

This means that I'll need only three in-classroom courses aside from the indy project to gain the required number of credits to graduate. As well, the indy project is pass/fail, which should represent a relatively easy task.

So, with that all situated, I began contacting my "sponsor" at Intel to get the details on the project. It so happens that I needed an Intel notebook computer and passwords to access the necessary software and have the necessary security clearance to work with confidential material. So, they hired me as a contract employee through their partnered temp-agency. And, yep, I get paid on top of everything else. Niiiice.

I went up to Portland yesterday to receive my Intel badge, notebook computer and so on. It was a decent trip, but made for a really busy day. I was up at the crack of daw-- -well, by 8:00am at least. And traffic wasn't bad on the way up, but was thick coming back to Eugene. Except for a brief hassle in getting past security at the Intel site, it was an overall good day.

So, in a roundabout way, this hints at the answer to my earlier question. I might be able to parlay this indy course thing into a full-time position. But I'm not writing off efforts with other companies. I'd still love to get up to Seattle soon. But I've got some short-term goals to achieve before I can honestly say that I'm back on my own again (on my own but with my xiao meimei, of course!). I need to get my mom into her own place, pay down some student loans and then save up a bit of cash to invest in a nice place in Seattle. It's expensive up there! Not as bad as San Francisco, but still pricey. And ... and and ... en!

I'm happy with the way things are going, but I'll be even happier when I can start to realize some of these goals I've got. Like getting my own place and either sharing with the mom or getting her a condo. I'd rather get her a condo, but initially she'll have to live in my attic or basement or something. ;D Just kidding. No, she'll have her own room. My biggest goal, then, is two-fold: get the mom into a place that I own and then get her OUT. Ah, but enough about that. It will happen. All in God's time.

So now I just keep on keepin' on and get my butt through school and off into the more lucrative working world. Jiayou, yay!