My name is Elias. No more shall be forthcoming, because I would rather my exact geospatial coordinates remain semi-secret, in the interests of protecting my modes...I mean, safety.
I am a 17 year old male living in Massachusetts. I attend the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, or UMass Lowell for short, as part of a dual-enrollment program. I'm currently finishing up my high school diploma, and also getting a jump start on college. I plan to make a serious dent into my first year at college, either skipping it, or reducing it drastically, via a combination of AP scores and college level classes from UMass.
This brings up the question of what exactly I might wish to do with myself, and where I might wish to go to college. The answer is somewhat complicated. Until recently, I would have told you that I was a gung ho programmer, and would never consider anything but computer science as my major. However, I then took a class in Psychology, and my world changed. [well...maybe not my world, but pretty close]. I discovered that I have a great deal of passion for the human brain, and its internal workings. So of course I gave some thought to how I might pursue both passions...and came to the conclusion that I would really like to look into prosthetics, and direct neural interfaces as a union of computer science and neurology. With that in mind, I've identified several colleges that I would dearly love to attend. In no particular order, and with a great deal of love for all...MIT, Brown, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and about 10 others. Realistically, I believe Carnegie Mellon to be the safest of the group, but not my first choice.
Having cleared up the dry scholastic junk, I have several confessions to make about myself. First, I am a hopeless addict: I cannot stop myself from seeking out math and computer science problems, and solving them. Indeed, if a problem crosses my path, I have trouble sleeping until I've solved it, in no small part because sleep with no solution leads to problem solving in my sleep. Useful, but not very restive. Second, I am a gadgetlover - I truly enjoy high-tech gadgets, and love to make use of them in every possible situation. I'm currently enthralled with my ipod touch, or iTouch, and am waiting for my HTC Incredible, which I bought a few weeks ago -- and which won't ship for several more [ T_T ]. By way of supporting this addiction, I work as a computer programmer: both fulfilling, and addicting as well. I love the thrill of programming, because it solves my drive to create and my drive to be creative [don't confuse them! they're different!]. However, I most love being my own boss, as I have been in the past, working on a proof-of-concept called Nebula -- a social networking tool that I'm developing with my father, and that *may* at some point see some real use.
