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1997 - Winter - Highschool

Highlights: The first time there was a flood I was in Germany on an exchange program and I was very disappointed that I missed out on all the 'fun'. The second time there was a flood was the spring of 1997 and I certainly did not miss out on any of the fun and exciting times. Here are some photos. One of these days I'll scan in more. But the short version is that we knew about the flood and started preparing long before any else. In spite of the amount of time and effort we spent building the world's largest dike our house flood. We had something like seven feet of water on the main floor. We were forcably evicted from our house on a Saturday by the RCMP. We then stayed at our aunt's for a few days and the moved into a tiny apartment at the Canadian Mennonite Bible College. At least the bike to school was now shorter and John lived closer :). I spent the rest of the summer cleaning up the flood mess and trying to do well on my final exams for highschool. Fortunately my studying paid off (I missed three weeks of school because of the flood?) and I almost aced the provincial math exam (I beat John. I don't know how he subseqeuntly got smarter and I got dumber..).

1997 - Summer - Work

1997 - Fall - Travel

Highlights: After spending the fall working on the reconstruction of the lower half of our house and painting the exterior with Jamalio, Jamalio and I took off to South Asia for 6 months. Sometime I'll post my journal online.

1998 - Winter Travel

1998 - Summer

Highlights: I spent the summer working for the first time with the Manitoba Sailing Association. I was the head sailling instructor for Manitoba and travelled all over the province in a big 12 passenger van towing a 30 foot trailer laden with a ton of boats. You would expect you'd need a special license to operate such a long trailer, but you don't. I also got a company pickup truck that needed a quart of transmission oil a day. More than once the thing would just stop working for hours and I'd have to sit and wait wherever I was for it to cool down. I only had 2 vehicle accidents while working with the MSA :).

At the end of the summer John and I biked from Ottawa to Halifax. Here's one picture. On the return trip we took the train and had a layover in Toronto. The night of the layover we stayed at a friend of my Dad's where we met Jane who was a VP or manager or something at IBM and spent the night telling us all about the University of Waterloo and how it was such a good school. Unfortunately I was starting at the University of Manitoba two weeks later or else I would have switched sooner.

1998 - Fall School 1A

School: University of Manitoba
Living at: Home - Lot 2 Marchand Rd, St.Norbert (Winnipeg)

Courses:

• Econ 018.120 - Principles of Economics (ECON 101)
• Inter 099.111W - Introduction to University
• Mathematical Sciences 136.151M - Calculus 1
• CS 074.101 - Introductory Computer Science 1
• Sociology 077.120 - Introduction to Sociology (SOC 101)
• Statistics 005.100M - Basic Statistical Analysis 1

Highlights: While at the University of Manitoba I lived at home and biked to school every day. Since it was my first year and I was coming from a fairly small highschool I really made an effort to get to know my instructors. I also made an effort to meet some new friends since my friends from high school had all sort of split up between a bunch of different schools and programs. So, I ended up joining the St.Paul's College Student Council which somehow lead to me getting involved with the inaugral University One Student Council. The U1SC council represented the largest number of students on campus. Our main task was providing feedback to administrators on the U1 program and securing and renovating space for a lounge.

1999 - Winter - School 1B

School: University of Manitoba
Living at: Home - Lot 2 Marchand Rd, St.Norbert (Winnipeg)

• Econ 018.120 - Principles of Economics (ECON 102)
• Mathematical Sciences 136.170M - Calculus 2 (MATH 136)
• CS 074.102 - Introductory Computer Science (CS 130)
• Sociology 077.120 - Introduction to Sociology (SOC 102)
• Mathematical Sciences 136.130M - Vector Geometry and Linear Algebra

Highlights: My work on student councils continued.. I ended up finishing the year with nine A+'s and two A's. It was my best two academic terms ever. Oh, how I miss Manitoba!

1999 - Summer - Work

Work: Manitoba Sailing Association
Living at: Home - Lot 2 Marchand Rd, St.Norbert (Winnipeg)

Highlights:

• I spent the summer working for the Manitoba Sailing Association again. I worked long hours, got a lot of sun, sailed, and made some decent money.
• I also spent a lot of time in tiny cottage country towns hogging the only pay phone trying to convince the University of Waterloo to transfer more credits for me than they did. Despite all my efforts they only let me transfer six course credits.
• Bought a Rocky Mountain Blizzard and befriended the folks at Gords.

1999 - Fall - School 2A

School: University of Waterloo
Living at: 88b McDougall, Waterloo

Courses

• CS 134 - Principles of Computer Science
• MATH 135 - Algebra For Honours Mathematics
• MATH 138 - Linear Algebra 1 For Honours Mathematics
• ECON 220 - The Principles of Entrepreneurship
• BUS 111 - Introduction to Business Organization

Highlights:

• Sorting out housing: I made the big mistake of thinking my highschool Mennonite connections would get me into the Mennonite residence that both John and Mark were staying at. Unfortunately I didn't make the cut and since I did not apply to normal residence as a backup plan I was sort of screwed. Fortunately, I really lucked out and the one guy my dad sort of knew in Waterloo had someone in his office who had a room to rent. But then, the residence called to say they could give me a room for Fall + Winter but I dropped out of co-op because I was put in 4-stream. So, I took the room.
• Driving to school:So, John and I drove to school but since our parents didn't think we could handle the 401 on the Labour day weekend so we missed Frosh week.
• I ran for student council but my campaign speach was WAAAAAAAY too long (thankfully this motivated me to take a public speaking course the next term).
• There were a lot of late nights with Langeman doing homework
• Met and started dating Natalie

2000 - Winter - School 2B

School: University of Waterloo
Living at: Conrad Grebel College w/Matt

Courses:

• CS 246 - Software Abstraction and Specification
• MATH 138 - Calculus 2 For Honours Mathematics
• MATH 235 - Linear Algebra 2 For Honours Mathematics
• DRAMA 223 - Public Speaking
• BUS 121 - Functional Areas of Organization

Highlights:

• Sick: I caught this really bad throat infection and was sick for weeks. Missed lots of school and had to stay at Natalie's Mom's house for awhile.
• We had some late nights dreaming up dot.coms.
• Ran for the position of President of Conrad Grebel's student council and won. I later gave up the position because of commitments to Fairtunes.

2000 - Summer - Work Term #1

Highlights:

• At IBM I was known as 'Matt The Temp'. I worked my way up from maintaining the technical documents to working on a market intelligence app. I also got pressed into cold calling potential customers and folding paper spam (but don't worry full times were pressed into these awful jobs as well).
• I only lasted two months before founding Fairtunes with John. But that is a story best saved for another afternoon but our press list is online.

2000 - Fall - Work Term #2

School: University of Waterloo
Living at: Conrad Grebel College w/John

Highlights:

• After being promised $150k we dropped out of school. Unfortunately our potential investor's company was sued. Our deal fell through.
• We spent the rest of the term depressed.

2001 - Winter - School 3A

School: University of Waterloo
Living at: Conrad Grebel College w/Justin

Courses:

• CS 241 - Foundations of Sequential Programs
• CS 251 - Digital Design and Architecture
• STAT 230 - Probability
• MTHEL 400 - Entrepreneurship, Technology and the Emerging Information Economy
• BUS 352 - Marketing 1

• Started this weblog
• This term was pretty bland until I told a Globe reporter that John had the brilliant suggestion of moving Napster offshore. For the next month I ran with the offshore thing (see press list). Ended up being flown to Denmark but nothing ever panned out.

2001 - Summer - Work Term #3

Work: Transpose LLC
Living at: 55 Maitland, Toronto

Highlights:

• Even though the bubble had burst I still had lots of job offers. I ended up accepting one from two guys down in Maine. Together we formed, Transpose.
• Since Natalie was working in Toronto, Maeve and I decided to live with her in a great apartment in the gaybourhood.
• Travelled to Maine a bunch of times on business
• John and I travelled to New York twice and ended up selling Fairtunes Inc's assets to Overlook Media Inc of Hillsdale New York. They subsequently botched the operation of the site and renamed it to Musiclink.

2001 - Fall - School 3B & Work Term #4

Work: Transpose LLC
School: University of Waterloo
Living at: 207 Erb St W, Waterloo

Courses:

• CS 240 - Data Structures and Data Management
• MTHEL 100 - Commercial and Business Law for Mathematics Students

Highlights:

• This term sucked. All my friends were busy working on a CS 246 project and all I did was work and study.
• Also had a lot of conference calls with the turkeys who bought Fairtunes.

2002 - Winter - School 3B & Work Term #5

Work: Transpose LLC
School: University of Waterloo
Living at: 207 Erb St W, Waterloo

• PMATH 330 - Introduction to Mathematical Logic
• MATH 239

Highlights:

• I got bored and decided to buy a house. Actually it's all Lauren's fault. Her landlord was looking for some to buy her townhouse and that got me thinking and the ball rolling. See buying a house.

2002 - Summer - School 3B & Work Term #6

Work: Transpose LLC
School: University of Waterloo
Living at: 161 Erb St W, Waterloo

Courses:

• CS 342 - Control Structures
• CS 360 - Introduction to the Theory of Computing

Highlights:

• New house excitment: Renovating the bathroom, getting the electrical redone
• Went to Banff for a ski weekend
• Travelled to Maine on business
• Spent 3 weeks in Portugal, Spain, Morrocco and England

2002 - Fall - School 4A

• CS 370 - Numerical Computation
• ACTSCI 221 - Mathematics of Investment
• STAT 231 - Statistics
• BUS 481 - Business Policy 1

Highlights:

• With Nat gone to England I really got to know the Math Boys. What this means is that I drank alot.
• Visited Nat twice in England with one side trip to Amsterdam for the weekend.

2003 - Winter - School 4B

• CS 341 - Algorithms
• CS 354 - Operating Systems
• CS 492 - The Social Implications of Computing
• CO 487 - Applied Cryptography

Highlights:

• None. It was the 'worst term ever'. School consumed our lives.
• Well I did go skiing for a week in Banff with my Dad and sisters.
• And then at the end of the term I flew back to Banff for a long weekend of skiing with Gords

2003 - Summer - Work Term #7

Highlights:

• Sailing at Burlington on a CS33
• Playing hockey three times a week
• Trips to Winnipeg, Montreal, and Seattle

2003 - Fall - School 5A

• CS 454 - Distributed Systems
• CS 456 - Networks
• CS 480 - Information Systems Management
• PYSCH 101 - Introductory Psychology
• SCI 206 - The Physics of How Things Work

Highlights:

• Last school term ever!
• We had a big great kegger
• Interviewed with Amazon, Microsoft, McKinsey and Google. Accepted an offer from Microsoft.