Thanks to one of the projects I have in the back of my mind, I was searching Google for people ages 16-20 with blogs. I looked through the first pages of results and I was amazed with what I saw: Brazil, Netherlands, Australia…
There’s this resource that connects millions of people around the world, thousands of miles away from each other. At this very moment, someone in Russia or China or England or Italy or Nigeria or Indonesia or India might be writing in their own personal blog. There has to be a better way to connect everyone.
The previous couple of entries were regurgitations of stuff that was already on the site; there may be more in the future. I’m just moving things around a bit – it’ll become clear in the future. Trust me. Please?
One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is why I chose to go to the University of Maine. In fact, I’ve answered this question so many times that I’ve decided to put up a page on my site to explain my reasoning. I don’t feel I have to defend my choice, and I don’t need to do this at all, but I think it will help for clarity if I do. Please excuse me if this becomes an admissions brochure or if you think I tried to list a whole bunch of excuses. Truthfully, all of the points below contributed to my decision.
I could have gone to ‘better’ schools than Maine, sure. These ‘better’ schools might have had higher SAT scores, more recognized faculty, and/or more specialized subjects. I always insist on putting ‘better’ in quotes because I think the reasons below help Maine be a quality institution itself. I received pressure from a lot of different angles, both directly and indirectly, to choose a more renowned school than the one where I sit now. I also receive a bunch of guesses about why I chose Maine. People usually say it’s because I’d get homesick or because I got in tuition-free since I was salutatorian at Hampden Academy. While these are, in fact, both true, they are far from my only reasons I chose to go to Orono.
My primary reason for choosing UMaine was most likely the new media program. UM was one of the only schools in the country having such a program, and I believe it’s the best one in the country. Considering my interests have always been strongest in web design, I figured that a strong yet experimental program would allow me to develop my skills and become a part of the development process of the major. In the same light, I had always heard that Maine’s computer science program was excellent. Perhaps it’s not up to the standards of WPI or MIT, but keep in mind that Maine is a public school. Basically, I knew both of the programs in which I’d be interested would be strong at the University.
Another large reason was the diversity of the campus. Granted, UMaine’s not known for cultural diversity (Maine as a state is 96.5% white, according to the Census), but my definition of diversity ranges farther than that. I wanted to continue with the broad levels of student intelligence found at Maine; I’d be working with people of varying abilities and talents all of my life, so I figured that having that mix in college would be very beneficial. I’ve always also loved being around a group with assorted priorities and goals; people who don’t focus mainly on academics keep me balanced in what I do.
Along that same line was the diversity of classes at the University. I chose not to go to WPI, MIT, or RPI partially because they didn’t have a broad course selection. Their technological courses may have been excellent, but my psychology and other liberal interests helped persuade me to choose a more balanced campus overall.
Another reason was my familiarity with the campus. I’d visited Orono many times in my life, and I’d always felt very comfortable there. I had wanted to study on the Mall since I was little. I’d been in the buildings and seen the resources. I’d cheered for the Black Bears in basketball and hockey. Basically, I knew that I would fit in at Orono and it would be a good choice for me. I also knew that living so close would give me the chance to visit home whenever I wanted, but it would be far enough away so that I wasn’t next door to Hampden. I could help other people find a place in Bangor or drive people to good restaurants in the area. There would be one less adjustment I’d have to make in the avalanche of changes in September. I could also stay in touch with the town where I’d spent my entire life; I could see the changes, visit my high school, and come home without a problem.
Since I’m used to a Maine atmosphere, I also wanted to stick with the personal attention that occurs in an environment like this one. The professors here are all very friendly, and they are also very approachable in my opinion. I feel as if I can e-mail anyone I want and get a response in a reasonable amount of time, ranging from people in Information Technologies to instructors to other students. I’ve always loved the atmosphere when I visited UMaine, so I felt that spending four years here would be an excellent choice.
Finally, I wanted to be reasonable. My senior year, although it was one of the better school years I’ve had, required a lot of work. Taking four AP classes in one year, I think, might’ve been a bit too much. I’m not saying that I wanted the workload to be basic or easy in college, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t overloaded with work. The most important point I learned in my senior year was not directly concerning academics; I learned that having time for social activities was much more enjoyable than doing work all day. I didn’t want to spend all-nighters doing work; if I had one, I’d much rather have it watching a movie with friends early in the morning. Similarly, I wanted to have a lighter workload than at other colleges so that I could experiment more with what I learned in class. For example, the RateMyPage.com idea and code came to me primarily based on my COS 220 course in Fall 2001.
Those are the primary reasons why I chose UMaine. Despite pressure to change my idea of a good college, I chose to go to Maine’s flagship university. I would like to thank those who supported my decision: friends, teachers, and family. I’m not ashamed to be a Black Bear — I’m proud. College is about more than just academics. To have a successful college career, a student should learn more than just what’s covered in textbooks.
Hi. I’m Justin Russell (you could probably figure that much out from the domain name). I was born in 1983, and I’m a student at the University of Maine by day and a web designer by late night.
I’m a full-time student at the University of Maine after graduating as salutatorian of Hampden Academy’s Class of 2001. I was accepted at more schools than just UMaine but I decided not to go there… that’s an entirely different story.
I received my first computer in 1992, and I got on the Internet for the first time in 1996. I’ve been doing web design for probably about six years; it all started with the official home page of the RTFC. I started up my first home page in July 1999, and I’ve had a view different versions since then. I’m always trying out new things with my home page, and it’s usually the testing ground before I use features on my other sites. I mainly use HTML and PHP for my sites, but I use some JavaScript and CGI, too.
Anyway, there are some basic things everyone should know about me. First of all, I’m a big advocate for trying to see the best in people. Procrastination’s my worst habit – I’ve spent many a night working on projects at 2 A.M. I normally like people with a good sense of humor, a nice smile, a willingness to listen, honesty, and a positive personality.
Other stuff about me:
Favorite movies: American Beauty, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and The Matrix
Favorite kind of music: pretty much any kind; I like techno/dance, punk/emo/ska, pop/rock, new age, classical…
Anticipated future occupation: webmaster, technology coordinator, technology consultant, systems analyst, photojournalist, or research social psychologist
Pets: a black Labrador Retriever named Jemma
Obsessions: computers, Monty Python, and The Screen Savers
Those are the basics. If you have any questions for me, please post a comment and I’ll be sure to respond. I’m usually a pretty open person.
Thanks for visiting justinrussell.com!
I figured I should clean up some of the old pages on the site. You might notice that the comment pages and the photo gallery are still in CGI; the comment pages are my next project to switch over to PHP. If all goes well, I’m going to switch my gallery over to a completely different site sometime soon. Your definition of ‘soon’ might be different from mine.
If you find any bugs or find anything that just plain-old doesn’t work, let me know.
Here’s the other half of the Mad Libs we did a while back. If you want to see the first half, here’s their entry page.
– A spaceship is a vehicle used for crying people between Earth and this distant grapefruits. A journey usually takes 22 years and can cover 24 miles. The passengers have to enter a red capsule and will exist in a state of gross animation. When the ship reaches its destination, they will hear a box and wake up and put on their visor. Then they have to land their 23-ton heavy vehicle in a careful atmosphere. They do this by firing the retro idiots. Then they test the atmosphere on this funny planet to make sure it contains stinky gas and is not all not stinky gas. If it is okay, they can get out of the ship very indubitably and sit all of the inhabitants.
– Last Thursday, two Orono men were launching in a mustard field near Bangor, Indiana. Suddenly, one of them said, ‘Hey, Nate, look up there at that bright, silvery Hummer floating over our deer!’ And before his friend could reply, a powerful burnt sienna light shot down and lifted them into a strange flying cable. Inside, they were greeted by tiny green mummies and given a dinner of French-fried robots and amber beans. Afterwards, they flew to the planet Drizzle and met the silly inhabitants. Then the flying machine brought them back to Bangor, Indiana. The men told our reporter that it was really a repetitive experience.
– Twinkle, twinkle little fun,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the Gladware so high
Just like a cardboard in the sky.
– Hey diddle diddle, the moose and the triangle,
The cow jumped over the towel.
The little dog rocked to see such sport,
And the street lamp ran away with the spoon.
– Star light, star bright, first curtain I see tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the water fountain I washed tonight.
– If you run into an alien Sarah who comes from some other green planet which revolves around a distant worm in another galaxy, do not be cylindrical. If it says, ‘Take me to your anthropologist,’ you must act friendly and say, ‘Shit!’ Remember, extraterrestrial bathrooms are not necessarily hostile. Many of them are shitty and all they want is to put you in one of their papers and fly you off for a vacation in toilet. So offer them a few beans or take them out to a movie. If you do, maybe they will tell you the secret of round telepathy or how they power their rocket SUVs. If you treat an extraterrestrial cunningly you may make a new friend.
If you want to send me e-mail, please use justin@justinrussell.com from now on. I’m trying to move away from my school e-mail program (I’m really starting not to like it), and all umit.maine.edu mail goes to it. That, and my e-mailbox there is pretty much full… 225 I have to go through that I’ve let sit there since November. Darn newsletters and spam.
OS X Mail, here I come!
I got this e-mail from one of the providers of an old web page I’d made. I guess we just have different definitions of the word ‘free’.
In order to continue to provide you this great, FREE service, we are charging all of our free web site customers a one time, $9.95 USD support and maintenance fee. Your web site is still FREE! You will not be charged any ongoing annual or monthly hosting fees, and as always no set-up fees. And you will continue to receive our industry-leading free web site package that includes 20MB of storage, 1 FTP account, CGI scripts and much more. Come on, this isn’t such bad news. For the price of a movie ticket you get rid of the banner ads, and continue to be hosted by the best hosting service anywhere.
I bought an iMac for $1600. Apparently since it was a one-time processing and hardware fee, it was actually free. I would’ve never known if it wasn’t for this e-mail. I got one heck of a deal, I’d say.
Part 3 of a 3-part series on January 16
Finally, I’m going to take a look at the upcoming classes I have this semester.
NMD 207: New Media Design Lab (Ippolito)
I’ve heard a lot of things about this class: some good, some bad. However it turns out, it’s one of those classes I have to take for the new media sequence – and none of the classes I’ve had to take so far have let me down. New media courses are usually vague, so at least I’m used to it by now.
NMD 362: Photographic Reporting and Storytelling (Kuykendall)
As far as I can tell, the title of this course is just a long way of saying photojournalism. Shared between the new media and journalism/communication departments, this seems to be a really good course that’ll help me out in a lot of ways. The first advantage: the textbook is the National Geographic Photography Field Guide. If the whole course is as good as the book, I’m gonna have a hell of a time.
COS 301: Programming Languages (Byther)
There’s a big question mark in the place of this course; I’m not really sure what’s covered. Besides that, it’s next in the line of CS courses that I’m planning on taking to get a minor. Learning all these languages has helped me reconsider how I program in my favorite languages; I think learning even more could help.
PSY 305: Psychological Aesthetics (Martindale)
The psychology of art. It could really help to have a course specializing in the connection between the two topics; I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if I can stand another art-based class. I guess how much I like this course will depend on how the material is presented.
EES 100: Human Population & the Global Environment (Anderson)
This one covers a couple of electives, but hopefully it’ll bring back out some of the sentiments I had as a kid towards saving the environment and the connection between people and the world in which they live. The textbook looks awesome, and it seems like there’ll be a lot of topics that I’ll enjoy within the class.
My schedule’s more reasonable this semester, too; three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, two on Mondays and Wednesdays, and one on Fridays. It’s another semester with a lot of variety, but I think I’ll be able to find a connection between all of my classes. That helps make learning easier for me.
