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Stanford Arts Review Dorm Room Submission

Published on May 13, 2013, by in Uncategorized.

I spent quite a bit of time at the beginning of the year making my room nice. My RA suggested I submit my room to the Stanford Arts Review’s annual dorm room competition. Here was my entry:

Hey Arts Review!

My name is Jesse and I live in Jerry, room 205A. My RA told me about this contest and thought I should enter, I agreed! :)

At the beginning of this academic year I decided to go all-out and “trick” my room out. I had these primary goals in mind:

1. Comfort
2. Party
3. Function

What you see in the following pictures is a carefully crafted and designed living and party space. I pulled out every stop that my finances would allow to make the room as comfortable to live in as possible while still being super inviting and fun to hang out in (Jerry is known for being somewhat anti-social, so I wanted to fight that from early on). Here are some of the highlights:

  • 5 channel ceiling surround sound (woofer hidden in desk drawer)
  • Multi-control & color LED Lights on ceiling floor
  • Floor LEDs sync to bass of music
  • Bamboo crown moulding handcrafted to each wall that hides the LEDs and speaker wire
  • Leather couch
  • Multiple pieces of carefully selected original artwork which appear interesting under regular light and change color under influence of the LEDs
  • 48” LED TV (hooked to computer)
  • In-room bar
  • Full-Size Memory Foam mattress with wood frame

The pictures don’t quite do the LEDs justice, so here’s a quick video of the lights in action (check out how the floor leds pulse to the bass :)

Room Fom Hallway

Room Backside

Green Room

Blue Room

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The Power of Perspective

Published on March 1, 2013, by in Life Hacks, Uncategorized.

I was out to lunch with a friend recently and somewhere in the middle of our conversation she mentioned something along the lines of how she was impressed with the “perspective” I had. We were talking about school and life, and she dug into why I thought the way I did about many things. I took a minute to think about what she was referring to and then mentally compared my life experience to hers, but also to the ‘average’ Stanford student (if that even exists). Obviously yeah, I’ve done a lot of things that at least an admissions officer thought was cool, but sometimes being in this ‘bubble’ I forget how much of an impact each individual experience from my history has had on me. As I look back on my life I can chart my development and actually tie personal growth back to individual events. The fact that my mother gave my brothers and me freakish independence growing up (and we were in North Dakota, so you could do that kind of thing), gave me this weird hyper-inflated assertiveness. Moving to Colorado after my mother’s second divorce at 15 and becoming the “man-of-the-house”, combined with my mother supporting both my little brother and me (older one had moved out by then), eased me nicely into adulthood. Touring around in a band during high school with mostly people who had high school educations reinforced the importance of higher education (although I wouldn’t realize this until later), for that moment, I realized that being a ‘professional’ musician did not pay a living wage. Working as an EMT taught me the importance of living every moment like it’s my last. Traveling Europe taught me how lonely life can be at times. Working as a walking tour guide in Paris taught me how gullible people can be when told what they want to hear (and how awful the weather is in the winter). Community college in San Francisco showed me that you get out of every experience what you put into it, and starting a business during that time showed me how fun ‘business’ could be, but how challenging it is to do it with your best friends. Further travel during summers reinforced the benefits of getting out of my comfort zone and meeting people from cultures I’d never heard of. Stanford exposed me to programming, a tech-start up and Stripe showed me how important it’s going to be for not only my future, but society’s.

It goes without saying that I’ve taken much more away from each experience than what I’ve written above, but those are some of the biggest things that stick out to me. So when my friend asked why I thought the way I did about life, I guess you could say that my answer drew from all of the above. When I critically evaluate why I often think and feel so differently than so many others around me it makes sense, I’ve done a bunch of things. If I had only done one of the above I would be a much different person than I am now, and I truly wouldn’t change anything about how things have worked out. An interesting question is if someone had offered me admission to Stanford at an earlier point in my life if I would’ve taken it, and I think the answer probably would vary depending on the particular phase I was in. That said, even if I hadn’t been accepted as a transfer student to Stanford last year, I wouldn’t change a thing and would still maximize whatever other opportunity I had.

I’m positive my life has been enriched from a vast array of different things and for that I’m grateful.

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Winning at life: 10 Secrets to College Success

Published on December 4, 2012, by in Life Hacks.

Recently I had the honor of being invited back to my community college to give a talk on whatever I wanted. I decided to put together a powerpoint of the 10 most important things that I did/thought about in community college that helped lead to high academic success and social fulfillment. I had a really great time giving this presentation and probably an even more enjoyable time browsing through all my pictures of community college while I put it together:

During the presentation I mentioned several books that people should read:

For encouraging others to succeed & positively influencing others:
How to Win Friends & Influence People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

For learning how to interact with the opposite sex:
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

And just for kicks, an excellent book that I recently read on the future:
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

It was awesome going back to CCSF and speaking to all the awesome students there. It’s great to be reminded of my beginnings :)

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Top 5 ways to build your credit score in college (and beyond!)

Published on December 2, 2012, by in Business, Life Hacks, TUSB.


As originally written for TUSB:

Since high school I’ve always had some strange fixation with my credit score. In the effort of winning this ‘game’ (win = high score) I’ve talked with a lot of different people (both students and those in the credit industry) and tried many different strategies. Some definitely worked better than others and a certain few actions were more effective than all others combined. As I got a bit older and my credit score became higher (it’s now right around 800/850) I began to see the benefits of having a high score. For example, I just applied for a premium credit card with awesome perks—as a student—and was instantly approved with a $13,000 credit limit (a new personal best). I’m no longer asked to put down a $600 security deposit when opening a new cell phone line and I could get a super competitive rate on any loans I wanted to take out. While these may not seem like big perks now, when you get close to graduation you’ll thank yourself for paying attention. Because I like you, I’ll condense the past 5 years of my hard work and observation into 5 steps that if taken, will get you a killer credit score.

As most people who read this are in their teens/early twenties, I’ll assume you have no credit score. For those who have already started and have low scores you should work on fixing your score first, although reading this should be beneficial to you as well.

1. Get a credit card no matter what

Prevent this from happening by building your score now!

That’s right, I said it. Keep in mind that credit scores are not meant for the individual, they’re designed as a metric for the bank to see how much of a credit risk you are. No matter what you’ve heard, if you want to build a great credit you need to use credit—the easiest way of which is through credit cards. However, I guarantee that if you’ve applied for a card without any history, you’ve been rejected. Why? Because the bank has no idea if you’re a risk or not. Rather than take the chance, they leave it up to you to prove it to them first.

Solution? Start off with a secured credit card. This works by giving the bank a deposit (I originally started with $300) that they keep for a year (and they don’t pay interest, either). In exchange they’ll give you a full-on credit card with a credit limit of the security deposit. After a year passes and you’ve shown good usage, the card converts to unsecured. Keep in mind long-term these cards are not very useful (5 years after opening my secure card it now has a limit of $1800), however they are crucial for beginning your credit history.

Important: make sure to…  Continue reading “Top 5 ways to build your credit score in college (and beyond!)” »

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Photoshop’s Killer ‘Content-Aware’ Feature

Published on May 27, 2012, by in Design.

BASES recently brought in a Photoshop guru to teach us the basics of flyer design and I learned about an awesome feature called ‘content-aware’. Using a complex algorithm, Photoshop is now able to take a selection of an image (could be a person, some lens flare, a tree branch, etc…) and ‘fill’ the image with it’s background, effectively eliminating the offending object. Excited at seeing how easy this was to use, I dove right in. Here are some of the results:

Despite what we told him, our friend Kayvon insisted he face the wrong way. This was nothing a little 'content-aware' couldn't fix!

 

I've never wanted to crop this picture I took in Hawaii, but the cement fixture drives me nuts. Not anymore!

 

Bye-bye nametag!

 

I had always thought doing things like this was complicated, but now I know differently. Here are the basic steps assuming you have Photoshop installed (it’s free for a 30 day trial period):

 

1. Import the picture you’d like to edit

2. Right click on the layer with the imported picture and select “rasterize.”

3. Select the ‘offending’ area using your preferred selection tool. I highly recommend the ‘quick selection tool,’ but the ‘ magnetic lasso tool’ also works well for large areas.

4. Once you’ve got the area selected, right click somewhere inside of it and select ‘fill.’

5. In the drop down menu under ‘use’ select ‘Content-Aware’ and click ok.

and voilà, the selected area disappears and is replaced with a Photoshop generated fill.

There area also a few other tutorials that show this in more detail with video that can be found here and here. Check those out if this doesn’t make sense. Also feel free to ask in the comments below!

Happy content-awaring ;)

 

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Day In the Life: Dominik Pasalic

Published on May 22, 2012, by in TUSB.

This post originally appeared on The Unofficial Stanford Blog:

Part one of a series detailing Stanford students and the awesome things we do outside of class

7:15AM on Sunday morning and my alarm sounds, piercing my post-Saturday night partying foggy consciousness. Detesting the idea of waking up at this godforsaken hour, I hit that glorious invention the snooze button and roll back into blissful nothingness. 5 minutes later my phone screams at me again, and an image flashes through my mind: I’m floating atop the water, the sun warming my face and the wind whipping through my hair. I’m drinking beer and laughing with friends. From the depths of my slumber, a slightly accented voice booms at me “Pull in the jib sheet Jesse, we’re tacking!” In a rush of excitement, I fly out of bed and begin searching for warm clothes, finally remembering why I got up this early on the day most college students never see the a.m. hours: it’s sailing time!

Stanford Senor & Skipper Dominik Pasalic

If you think I’m nuts for giving up my one guaranteed morning of sloth to schlep all the way to Santa Cruz to battle the wind or lack there of, wait until you meet Stanford senior Dominik Pasalic, Croatian born and raised, and an ocean lover since day one. Despite his passion for the sea and fascination with all things maritime, it wasn’t until his mid teens that Dom took his first one week sailing class in his home country. “Learn how to sail an old Croatian sailboat,” he tells us, “and you’ll be able to sail any boat in the world!” he emphasizes as he points to the electronic controls on the modern 46 ft Beneteau sailboat that we’ve chartered (sail speak for rented) for the day from Pacific Yachting in Santa Cruz.

 

 

Continue reading “Day In the Life: Dominik Pasalic” »

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After One Week of Coding I’m “Rails Deep”

Published on May 14, 2012, by in CS, Ruby on Rails, Stanford.

I still can’t do much. But, I can do a whole heck of a lot more than I was able to before I started, so I’m feeling positive. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned and the resources I used to get there:

I’ve been working almost completely in Ruby on Rails, which has been a bit controversial among my CS friends. One says I should learn Sinatra first, others say Javascript, another Python, and at least a few think I should drop it all together and focus on what I’m already good at. I’ve taken all advice to heart and keep pushing forward with Rails. Why?

As my friend Dieterich pointed out, Rails has some of the most comprehensive support communities on the internet. For several reasons I’m not the only non-technical person trying to learn coding and we all seem to flock to Rails. This equates to a lot of resources (most free, some paid) to learn from. In last week’s post I showed a screenshot of me installing Rails. I was following an excellent (free) walkthrough written by Michael Hartl. He starts off from the raw beginning and treats the reader as if he/she had little to no experience. Just from chapter one I was able to create a basic rails scaffold, learn how to work a git repository, and push a live version to the web via Heroku (with a little help configuring MySqlite3/PostgreSQL from Brian). That was a pretty great feeling, even if it was just reading one step after another and acting like a monkey.

I’m planning to center the foundation of my Rails education around Hartl’s book. He recommended that before advancing into chapter 2 I complete the Codeschool “Try Ruby” and “Rails For Zombies” courses, which I did. Try Ruby is an awesome course for the very basics of the ruby language. It’s console based, which means you actually type code into the computer and the program tells you if you’re doing it right or not.

Rails for Zombies took the majority of my week (I probably spent around 20-30 hours in total learning code this week). Right after Try Ruby, Rails for Zombies continues teaching Ruby on Rails by having the user create parts of a Twitter “for zombies.” It’s very interactive. Lessons are based around a 5 minute video, slides, and active programming in the console. My only complaint with this program is that they show the results of code written into the console periodically and not every time. For example, after creating the code to have a text field turn red when left blank, rather than rendering the text field and letting the user play with it, the console just says “successful” and moves to the next lesson. At any rate, I pushed through Rails for Zombies 1 and decided to pay for Rails for Zombies 2 (a $25/mo. subscription that I’ll cancel before the next month bills). By the end of Rails 2 I was working with some pretty complicated AJAX and CoffeeScript that I still don’t really understand yet, but I’m hoping that as I continue to get “hands-on” experience it’ll start to make more sense.

So, now that I’ve completed those tutorials I’m back to Hartl. It looks like he’s also going to go the way of having me build a twitter, although I can tell that his walkthrough is much more “real-world” than Rails For Zombies. Just yesterday I was almost able to complete chapter 2, which culminates in the pushing of a very rudimentary Twitter like application to the web. I’m having MySqlite3/PostgreSQL/Heroku issues that prevent me from being able to push the working app to the web right now, but check back at this link in the next day and it should be working.

I’ve had a few people approach me and say that they’ve been inspired from my posts and that now they too are attempting to learn Rails. In an effort for everyone to help each other out, I’ll list out the sequence that I’ve been learning in. So far it seems to work pretty well, but then again I still can’t really do much on my own without a detailed walkthrough (and even then I’m sometimes dependent on my techie friends):

 

1. Sign up for Codeschool (free)

2. Complete the short “Try Ruby” program on Codeschool (free)

3. Complete Rails for Zombies 1 on Codeschool (free)

4. Complete Rails for Zombies 2 on Codeschool (requires $25/mo subscription, get $5 off for completing step 3)

5. Start at chapter 1 in Michael Hartl’s rails walkthrough and keep going!

 

Full disclosure: I do ask that if you decide to purchase a paid subscription to Codeschool for Rails 2 you do it through the links on this post named “Codeschool,” as I get a small referral commission that helps me pay for website upkeep.

 

I’ll be working on step 5 all this week. J-Twitter, here I come! Let me know if you decide to try any of this in the steps below.

 

Also, check out my new resources page. I’m starting to put up valuable links that people have sent on to me for learning to code and coding better.

 

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Bring On The Code!

Published on May 8, 2012, by in Business, CS, Entrepreneurship, Ruby on Rails, Stanford.

Computer science and I have a love-hate-hate-HATE relationship. While I’m only in my twenties, I was never exposed to code nor computer programming growing up. In fact, the first time I ever really sat down and began to code was this last fall in Stanford’s Computer Science 106A class: introductory java. At around a 660 student enrollment and taught by a CS badass, it was the biggest class in Stanford’s history.

I lasted for two weeks in the class. It was very fast paced and I was able able to complete the first assignment, even getting a “check” on the assignment (which means a good, solid, program without any frills), however it took me around 40 hours to do it. While I don’t necessarily put too much stock into comparing myself with classmates, most people were completing the assignment in under 20 hours.

I decided that CS just didn’t come naturally to me and I’d leave it to those with a more natural knack for it while focusing on what I do well instead. I left it at that and dropped the course. I did however, pop back in for a day at the end of that particular class on the recommendation of a friend that “something big was going to happen.” Turns out he was right when Zuckerberg walked in nonchalantly and spoke to the class for 50 minutes:

Anyways, since leaving the class I’ve gone back and forth about 100 times on whether or not to pursue coding. The biggest incentive is to gain a skill set that would allow me to rapidly prototype and validate ideas without being dependent on someone else. This has been hammered into me on numerous occasions over the past few months, as I’ve been working on several internet-based ideas and have felt completely helpless in their technical development. Luckily the developer I’ve been working with, Song Zheng, has been a god-send in rocking out all the technical aspects of our projects and allowing me to do the business side of things, however tech projects are virtually all development in the beginning. At a conference I recently heard a non-technical founder speak about the start of his company. He was one of three co-founders and when asked what he did for the large part of the beginning of his company he replied, “Got a lot of coffee for people.” Personally I’d like to get less coffee and be more useful.

I don’t expect that I’ll be a great computer programmer, nor even a good one. What I do hope to gain is a basic fluency that will allow me to take internet based ideas and systems and be able to design and build the first working versions. While I do have a very strong network of computer scientist friends and contacts that I can approach to do projects, I feel I’m in a much stronger and more desirable position in attracting technical talent if I can rock out even just a basic model. This is key to the product validation idea: to get the cheapest quickest version out, get customers, then iterate around it. It will be much easier if I can do this on my schedule and not be dependent on someone else’s. This article written by a Penn CS major also highlights the importance of not looking for a technical co-founder and doing the damn thing yourself.

In Wayne’s World 2 the spirit of Jim Morrision says “If you book them, they will come.” Applied to CS I feel this quote changes into “If you build it, they will come.”

I’m gonna start building.

 

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The dreaded Stanford bike police…..(and how to escape!)

Published on April 20, 2012, by in Stanford.
This post originally appeared on The Unofficial Stanford Blog:
Black and white, a terrorizing sight on campus!

They’re sly, they’re sneaky, and they give out tickets like nobody’s business! That’s right, I’m talking about the Stanford bike police. They’ve been out in force and recently I had the great honor of “chatting” with an officer as I was riding my bike at night without a light. As most Stanford upperclassmen know from experience and most freshmen and sophomores are learning the hard way, bike tickets seriously cramp everyone’s style! Expensive, time-consuming (if you choose to go to “ticket school”), and all around crappy. Now, if you follow the law (use a light at night, come to a full-stop at a stop-signs, don’t ride where you’re not supposed to, etc.), you should be fine and don’t need to read this. However, if you’re an anarchist bent on disobeying authority, this is definitely for you. Also, if you’re a regular Stanford student that makes a few mistakes now and then, you should probably keep reading.

DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse breaking the law, nor dishonesty. Use these tips at your own risk. If you get caught doing some of these your punishment will be far greater than if you hadn’t tried to be a bad-ass. Telling the officer that “Jesse said I could do it” will most definitely not work. Duh. The following tips are based on the experiences of myself and other undergrad Stanford students:

1.) Don’t be a dick

You have to realize that from the second a cop pulls you over, he has complete control. Even if you are completely innocent, I promise being rude will get you absolutely nowhere. In fact, just being rude may be warrant enough for the cop to give you some type of ticket. Sure, you may be able to get out of it down the road, but that doesn’t mean it won’t take a ton of your time and energy in letters and court appearances. Pulled-over? Suck it up, smile, and be polite.

2.) Be honest

Cops are not idiots. I promise. They give literally thousands of tickets a year, so your half-brained, split-second excuse is most likely not going to work. Depending on how crappy it sounds, it could end up with you getting a heavier fine/more unpleasant interaction. If you get pulled over it’s likely the first thing the officer will ask you is why you think he pulled you over. You have two options: tell him the truth (if you know), or tell him you’re not sure. Again with the whole idiots thing: if it’s super obvious (ex: blew a stop-sign where everyone else was stopped) and you say you’re not sure, that’s a pretty sure bet for a ticket. Oftentimes honesty can get you a long way with the police here, especially if you’re apologetic and polite. However, enforcement will rarely have mercy for bikers who don’t pay attention when they’re riding, and honestly they probably shouldn’t. In cases like these I recommend telling the truth, but putting your own spin on as to why you broke the law. Which leads me to point 3….

3.) If you’re going to make an excuse, make it good!

Again, cops hear tons of stories, so what makes you different from the last 10 people he just gave tickets to? If it’s 3AM and you’re leaving Meyer without a light on your bike, you know you’re breaking the law (if not, you do now, so no excuses). While you’re unlocking your bike, multi-task and come up with a solid reason for why you don’t have a light. A few of my friends have pulled the “I was at the library and someone stole my light” card, which seemed to work for them, but that’s pretty un-creative. If you are smart enough to study here than you should be smart enough to come up with at least one reason for why the cop should take pity on you. Bonus points if you state to the officer that you realize it’s against the law to ride without a light.

4.) Police officers issue tickets for 2 reasons: safety and revenue. Use this to your advantage.

Unlike motor-vehicle tickets, which can have astronomical fees (sometimes thousands of dollars), in conversations I’ve had with the Stanford bike enforcement it seems they are genuinely interested in student safety over price gouging. Sure, the revenue doesn’t hurt them either though, so it’s your job to make the cop benefit more from letting you off than making money off you. If you show competence with bike safety and the law when speaking with the officer, he’ll be much more inclined to entertain your excuses. Police often use tickets to “teach a lesson,” so if you already know the lesson before he lectures you about what you did wrong, that should get you bonus points.

And the last (and most controversial) option:

5.) Run

Personally I would not do this, however I have heard several success stories of running (er…biking) away from enforcement. The successes I have head about have been either when the officer was on foot or far away in a car and the biker lost the officer in a crowded parking lot. Know that if you do this and get caught, you are screwed. Big time. Risk definitely outweighs the gain on this one.

If you run, they will find you!

So there you have it. Let’s hear your ticket-avoidance strategies!

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The 5AM Stanford Quickie

Published on April 19, 2012, by in Stanford.

Meyer @ 5AM

After a recent all night work session, I rode my bike across campus back to my dorm. As I tired to enter, I realized I had forgotten to bring my ID (ID cards here @ Stanford access the outer doors of buildings). Crap, 5AM and nobody awake to let me in.

I decided to bike back to the library. As I arrived and was locking my bike, I exchanged glances with a guy 20 feet away from me. I started walking to the front entrance of Meyer and glanced over at the guy (he was getting on his bike). He was looking at me like we had met before.

There’s always some kind of internal build-up before you talk to someone. With people you know well it’s instinctual, however the less you know someone the more internal resistance there is to engage them. This guy smiled like we definitely knew each other, I was still far enough away that I wasn’t sure if this was the case or not, but it was enough to push me of the “cliff” of resistance. I said, “Hey man!” He replied similarly stating that he didn’t have his contacts in. As I approached and shook his hand the 5AM Stanford moment occurred… we both immediately realized that we had no idea who in the hell each other was. Neither of us wanting to admit it, we talked for 30 seconds, me about getting locked out of my dorm, him about still needing to finish 3 more pages of writing before morning classes.

That was it. We split ways and I went in to get more work done. Usually I would’ve brought up the fact that we actually had no freaking idea who each other was and introduced myself, but not today. We both just wanted to get the hell out of that interaction as quickly as possible without coming across as dicks. Mission successful.

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