rossgilmore.com

I haven’t updated in a while, so I thought while I had an easy(er) night I’d update the site. It’s officially spring in Charlottesville, as evident by the 70 degree weather today – where I wore shorts and sandals – to the April showers we’ve seen so often..

Unfortunatley, I can’t download my Costa Rica video to my laptop. Through the process of traveling, my cardbus broke on my laptop (where I hook the camera into the firewire), so I can’t download the video. To fix it, I’d have to send my laptop in, which I’m planning on doing after classes end. I may go buy a Firewire card for my computer, but I doubt I’ll have any real time to mess with it until after school’s over..

April is going to be an AMAZING month! Just a rough agenda for the upcoming month:

This weekend: Ashley’s Parent’s Formal/March Madness Final Four

Next weekend: VT Club Soccer Tourney/SpringFest

April 16 weekend: My 21st birthday! Going to be a huge bash!

April 23 weekend: Phi Psi Formal in DC

April 30 weekend: Foxfield!

Throw in some gorgeous weather (I hope), flag football, soccer, mixers and parties throughout the week and April is jam packed! Unfortunatley, the work is the same as well. Continuing with the roughest semester yet, I have tons of work ahead of me.. I’ll really have to pick up..

I’m playing on three 4-4 flag football teams. I have independent (with all the guys in the LD house), frat (basically same as independent), and co-rec (Jay, Tristan, Ashley, Ali, Nan, and me). It’s a blast to play, and I’m hoping for a few championships this April..

Can’t wait for the weekend.. hope everyone is pulling for UNC! I really hope they don’t choke, and all the talented players on their team get what they deserve! The RossGilmore.com March Madness Pool has been reduced to two potential winners, Luke Winter or Greg Ross. Basically, if Illinois wins Greg wins, and if UNC wins Luke wins… needless to say, I’m pulling for Luke (GO UNC!).

No seriously, he is! …. Ha, us wahoos can only hope. The period after firing a coach (in our case, Gillen) and finding a new one can bring on wild rumors. Everyone from Rick Pitino, Rick Carlisle, and even Larry Brown have been mentioned in the rumor mill as a possibility for the next wahoo coach. Unfortunatley, our AD Craig Littlepage is in St. Louis for the Final Four (he’s important like that..), and I don’t believe we’ll be hearing a press conference or any news of the sort until after the Madness is over Monday night..

But here’s my take on the coaching situation: UVa, while not a top tier basketball program, is still respectable. We play in the ACC – arguably the best conference in the country, with the best players and the best coaches. We are building a brand new, state of the art arena. We have great academics, and what I’d like to think a great fanbase/community. And we’ve shown we’re willing to pay the big bucks (Gillen’s contract was $950,000/year for over 10 years) – and it’s been rumoured we’re willing to spend over $2 million a year for a top notch coach. We shouldn’t belittle ourselves by not expecting a top coach… this is a great job opening..

But will we get Tubby? I must admit at the beginning of the week I was sucked in big time.. reading all the articles on www.thesabre.com and hearing all the press, I almost felt it was going to happen. I’ve been grounded since then, aware not to get caught up in the hype, but still believe there’s a chance. I’ll list a few reasons why:

• Tubby Smith has roots to the state of Virginia. He coached at VCU, his son went to prep school here (Fork Union), and his wife is from Richmond. For those of you whom are married, I’m sure you all understand how much a wife’s decision could influence a job choice..
• Kentucky may still be a bit racist… I can’t make this claim personally, seeing as I’ve never witnessed it, but I’ve read lots of articles that have shown Tubby has recieved criticsm and hatred due to the color of his skin.. there was even an excerpt I saw about the UK fans booing his own son..??
• Tubby Smith will live in Rick Pitino’s shadow for the rest of his career.. The UK fans would die at a chance to get Pitino back, and Smith knows it
• Tubby would have the opportunity to coach against the best and play against the best day in and day out. He’d also have the opportunity to revive a program and make it a potential powerhouse (note: potential)..
• Tubby Smith and Craig Littlepage are good friends. This is not speculation, they have vacationed together and talk often. Wouldn’t you want to work for a good friend of yours?

There are only a few reasons why he MAY come here, and there’s PLENTY why he wouldn’t…. if I were to bet on it, I’d still say the odds were 10-20% of him leaving.. but that’s still a chance. But you have to wonder, if there’s “no way he’s leaving!” and if he’s told the Kentucky AD/fans “I’m excited about next year.. I’m happy here.. etc” why hasn’t Tubby just ended the rumors yet? He’s playing the politics and definitley leaving the door open for possibility. Not only has he had multiple chances to say “I’m not interested in Virginia, remove me from the job search” (as a few coaches have already stated), but even ESPN picked up the rumor (on PTI and Around the Horn) – giving it some legitamacy. We won’t hear anything until at least next week, if we hear anything at all. But until Tubby rejects a contract we offer or says No, he’s still in the race..

Have problems waking up in the morning? Hit the snooze button repeatedly until you’re late for class? MIT found a solution! Clocky! – is quoted as being “quite simply for people who have trouble waking up.” I might invest in one of these.. check it out!

Brian, my brother, committed to American University today! He received a full, 4-year scholarship to play basketball there. Despite multiple injuries and setbacks, he’ll finally be playing collegiate ball and is expecting to be a starter his freshmen year! I know he’s excited to finally get out of high school, and even more excited to be playing close to all his family and friends. We’ll have to be rooting for AU next year to reach March Madness..!

Ok ok.. so when Sprad decides to update my own website, I figure I’m due in for a post or two.

First — Happy Easter! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend, goes to church, hangs out with their family, whatever you do to celebrate – enjoy it! I’m actually staying in lonely Charlottesville this weekend – not the norm – but I’ve been sick recently, have tons of work, and need to have a relaxing, quiet weekend. I hope to get a good bit of work done as well.

I’ve been swamped with work this week, as seems to be the usual with this semester’s classes. Richie and I worked together on building a kernel for my OS class – basically we’re writing code for a skeleton OS named NachOS (it makes us hungry every time we’re working on it..). We spent well over 30+ hours, even used up 6 of our “skip” days, and didn’t even turn it in 100% complete. Talk about frustrating. Not to mention after turning it in, we have to immediately begin on the new assignment dealing with pthreads and semaphores and things of that sort, with a take-home test soon thereafter. I guess it’ll all be worth it when I graduate..

I had a phone interview with Microsoft for a summer internship last Monday. After a series of emails, sending the resume around, and filling out a questionnare, they set me up with the phone interview. It was interesting, to say the least. I was very impressed with the interviewer, he asked really good questions and the interview went very smoothly. He started off with the simple “Why do you want to work at Microsoft?” and “Tell me about your job/class/etc”… he then spent a majority of time on design level questions. Since I was applying for the Program Manager (PM) position, he tested me for potentially what I’d be doing. He started off by telling me Microsoft wanted to develop a cell phone – and that it’s main focus was internet connection/accessibility – and said “What would you do?”. So basically I walked through all the functions it’d have to have, the components, the design, etc. He challenged me and would throw questions back, as well as ideas or constructive criticism. After about 20 minutes of that, he asked me to talk about the program I had in front of me (Microsoft Live Meeting) – and talk about the server/client requirements and details. We went through the same process as before – and then he asked me to write a segment of code in front of him. He basically wanted me to write a function to copy a string into the buffer, but if the string is longer than the buffer, then to concatenate the string so it doesn’t overflow the buffer (hence, buffer overflow, a large flaw in Microsoft programs..). Up until this point, I felt the interview went really well, but I really choked on the program part. I’d never been put on the spot programming like that, with someone watching everything I type as well as what I think, and I only had about 5 minutes to do it. So sad to say, I’m not sure if I’ll get a callback interview, but if anything it was a great experience. I recommend anyone to try to interview with Microsoft just for the experience’s sake..

On the job note, I accepted an internship for the summer at Sperry Marine this week. They are a division of Northrop Grumman, and are located here in Charlottesville. I’m not exactly sure what I’d be doing, but they have tons of work. They do both commercial and government work, and are basically looking to automate and improve ships in lots of ways. I was told I’d be doing all sorts of things, from programming to working on hardware and who knows what! The whole LD house will be living in Charlottesville this summer, it’ll definitley be interesting..

Selection Sunday has come and gone after an exciting championship weekend as the 65 teams and brackets have been announced! Watch ESPN’s bracketology, read all the statistics, and make your pics and enter my 3rd Annual March Madness Pool! To enter, go here: http://www.rossgilmore.com/marchmadness/ Entries are only $5.. the pot last year was up to $200, and this year hopes to be even bigger!

I’ll be accepting payments in person and online.. if you use Paypal, you can send me $5 over that (I’m going to set up a tutorial how to do this soon). But get your brackets into me soon – and encourage others to sign up as well (family, friends, housemates, coworkers, etc., the more the merrier).

March Madness is going to be crazy! First games are Thursday…

Wow – I’m back from Costa Rica.. what a trip!

To recap: The LD House (minus Tyler), Chad, Matty, Haffey, Rob, Ashley, and Erica all traveled south to Jaco Beach, Costa Rica for Spring Break. 8 of us stayed at the Club Del Sol, while Seth Beau Rob and Luke stayed at the Arenal Pacifico.

The weather was gorgeous – always 85+ degrees and mostly sunny. Our trip started off perfectly with a fun cab ride from San Jose to Jaco. It’s a gorgeous (but rough) 2 hour drive through the mountains to the beach. The place we stayed in was amazing – it’s not a hotel, but privatley owned condos that they rent out. It’s only 2 months old, and very very nice.

Our days consisted mainly of surfing (big waves), laying out, hanging out at the pool, reading, and just relaxing. The weather was phenominal compared to Virginia weather.. it was just nice to wear shorts and sandals! Our nights consisted of heading out to random bars, restaurants, casinos, and just hanging out. Nothing too wild, nothing too crazy, just fun.

A few things to note: One of our guides who drove us from the airport to the beach was a soccer player, and he invited us to go play with him and a bunch of Ticos (The locals). So one day, Luke Beau Chad Tessier and I went to a field with him and played a game of 20v20 soccer. It was a great experience. The players ranged from young teenagers to 40/50 year old men. They were pretty serious, but unfortunately not all that good. Tessier managed to score a goal, while Luke managed to dribble too much and get drilled..

One day, Jay Ashley and I went on an excursion to the rain forest. We woke up at 7:30 AM and took an hour drive south of Jaco to the rainforest. We took an hour horseback ride up the mountains, which was amazing. Who knew horses could carry you up and down steep mountains like that? After we got high enough, we went Canopy Touring. For those who don’t know, Canopies are set up all throughout the jungles in Costa Rica. They are tree stands high up with thick cables in between. They attach a harness to you, give you a handbrake, then attach you to the cable. You swing fast from one side to the other. Our canopy tour was over 450 feet over the ground, and was quite breathtaking. Flying through the rainforest is pretty incredible. After the canopy tour, we went to a local house and had a great typical Costa Rican lunch (beans, rice, chicken, salad, coffee) and then walked down to some natural springs. It was a side pool on the river warmed by a Volcano nearby. The hot springs felt just like a hot tub. We even got a mud bath while we were in there. We then rode our horses back to where our car was and drove home.

Needless to say, I’m upset to be back in Virginia. We all had a blast while we were there. It’s even sadder we’re returning to snowy weather and tons of work to do.. (I have a huge assignment due this week, as well as a midterm and a few job interviews). I’m currently working on compiling all the video and pictures taken.. they will definitely be up here by next weekend. I took over 2 and a half hours of video, and our group had to have taken hundreds of pictures.

I hope everyone had a great spring break, and now back to reality..

Wow – who doesn’t love March basketball? The sunday while I was in Costa Rica proved to be one of the most eventful this season as over 5 of the top 10 teams lost… including unranked #1 Illinois and the last minute thriller of the best college basketball rivalry UNC and Duke (UNC won).

As its now Championship weekend, we’re seeing more and more great basketball. It looks as if UVA played it’s last game under Pete Gillen (I hope) .. I’ll be looking for a press conference Monday or Tuesday citing Gillen’s resignation or firing..

Selection Sunday is tomorrow. I’ll be running my 3rd annual March Madness tournament. Check out the site here: http://www.rossgilmore.com/marchmadness/ Anyone is welcome to play.. I’ll post more about it Sunday night after the brackets have been released. As for now, I’m going to enjoy the mass amount of great basketball games this weekend, while attempting to settle back into reality that is school..

Travis Tucker, my friend and teammate on club soccer here at UVA, has been eliminated on American Idol. He made it to the last cut before the Final 12 contestants. What arguably was the hardest cut, he was eliminated with another guy to cut it from 8 to 6 guys. Unfortunatley, much of Tuck’s voting support was out of the country/out of town – as UVA was on Spring Break this past week. I’d like to think that it didn’t hurt him – because I feel guilty enough as it is for not getting to vote once (or 500 times). Needless to say, it was sad to see him get cut – but at least he had his moment of fame and proved his talent. Kudos to you Tucker. And now – unless some Hollywood scout picks him up – he’ll be back next year for club soccer!