Joshua Smith

Posted some new photos from the Search holiday party and my trip to Philly for Thanksgiving. Check them out on my photos page, Flickr, or Facebook – I’m working on a way to synchronize all three of these :) So far, Flickr and joshuasmith.name are in sync, just Facebook to go…

Also, I’ll be back in Philadelphia from Christmas Eve through December 30, then in Scottsdale from the 30th to the 2nd. Let me know if you’ll be in town!

Just realized it’s been a super long time since I updated this, so thought I’d write something.

Work
has been good – still working on Live Search, doing the user interface for News and xRank. We recently released a new version of xRank including ranking of all queries, not just known entities which is pretty cool; check it out here. Still working in Redmond at the moment, but we’re slated to move into the Bravern in Bellevue next summer, which looks awesome (and super close to home): The Bravern. Got a little promotion back in August, so I’m now an SDE II :) gotta update my resume I suppose…

Travel
Have been doing quite a bit. Went to Vegas for Halloween, which was awesome as usual – some pictures should be showing up soon once I get them on Flickr. Just got back last week from Philadelphia, visiting my family over Thanksgiving, etc. Interesting travelling, given that I was dragging Ernie, our Bichon, around with me on planes, etc. In a few weeks, I’ll be heading back to Philly for Christmas too, then to Phoenix for New Years. Definitely let me know if you’ll be in either over the holidays. Next big trip will definitely involve skiing, either locally or up in Whistler once some decent snow starts falling – can’t wait! Also thinking about doing Oktoberfest in Amsterdam, Munich, and Prague next year!

Anyway, other than work, not much has been going on – working out quite a bit (still on the 20/20 wagon), trying to work on a little neural net based market prediction app in my spare time, and enjoying all the Seattle area winter seasonal beer :D

Happy Holidays!
Josh

Just got back from a weekend at Lake Tahoe today - had a blast gambling, eating some good food, and learning to ski (thanks Jen!).  I actually survived (even tried a black diamond a couple times); some new photos are posted here.
Had to get up at 4am this morning to catch a flight back for work though, so I’m gonna go pass out…

So, when I was in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, Jen, Sarah, and I decided to drive to Vegas at about 10:30pm Friday night. Pretty crazy weekend given that a huge Mayweather fight was going on at MGM, but pretty damn good overall. Hit up Pure, Ghost Bar, few other Palms bars… drank a lot, slept a little, took a wrong turn into a snow storm on the way back to Phoenix… Anyway, posted some pictures on flickr and here. By the way, I’ll be on the beach in St. Maarten for the next 10 days or so, meaning that I’ll probably only be reachable via smoke signals or carrier pigeons :)

Hey all,

I’ll be back in Blue Bell for Thanksgiving from November 21 through 26.  My five year high school reunion is on Friday so I’ll be making an attempt to get to that, but I’d love to catch up with anyone else that wasn’t in my class too.  Definitely give me a call if you want to do something that weekend.