I’m now an official graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Perhaps unsurprisingly, commencement at Georgia Tech wasn’t that much different than commencement at ASMS. It did feel quite a bit more impersonal, though; I only recognized a handful of people from a graduating class of hundreds. John Salley, former NBA national champion and Georgia Tech alumnus, started the event off with a lively and entertaining address, and then we all filed across the stage to shake hands with Wayne Clough, president of the school, and receive a diploma placeholder that proved to be just a picture of the Tech Tower. (I’m told that we will receive our real diplomas in the mail.) It was a very brief moment of glory.
After the ceremony, I joined family for another enjoyable meal at The Vortex on Peachtree Street. We parted ways after lunch, and I returned to my apartment to begin my career (suitably brief, I hope) as an unemployed college graduate.
With Thermodynamics out of the way as of approximately 2 PM this afternoon, I’ve taken my final final exam (at least for the near term). I don’t really feel any different. I’m still in more of a semester-end mode than a college-end mode. Commencement is tomorrow and all my immediate family has made efforts to be at the event. Maybe the impact of the event will leave a more forceful impression.
Cold
Hotlanta is finally starting to cool down and I’m starting to feel it too. By the end of the week, I was well on my way into my first cold of the new season.
On College
Just over one month left; the end of the semester—and possibly my college experience—is closing in at alarming speed. I handled various Japanese tests and my second make-or-break thermodynamics exam as best I could. I’m cautiously optimistic about thermodynamics as I feel like I understand things better now than I have all semester. On the other hand, I thought I had done pretty well on my first exam until I got it back.
As I alluded to above, I’m feeling a bit unsettled as I realize that is the home stretch of my final semester. Suzuki-sensei recently polled our Japanese class to see who would be continuing on to the intermediate level; nearly everyone raised their hands. I would like to count myself among that group too, but I’m out of time; they won’t let me take any more classes once I’ve graduated. Looking back, I would have preferred to split this final semester over a couple semesters and possibly take some more Japanese and other electives. Looking further still, I would have liked to have persued a minor or a certificate in one of these areas. Maybe some of these options will show up on the table again if do go down the graduate school path at some point.
I just started playing with Miranda IM this Saturday. It is (another) multi-protocol IM client for Windows and it is released under the GPL license. The key features that the web site pushes are low resource overhead and customization through modularity. I have been happily using Gaim for a while now, but I thought I would give Miranda a shot; I’m always looking for the next thing.
New Wallpapers
Fall Break 2004 officially began with the close of classes this Friday afternoon. With no pressing tasks and a little bit of breathing room before my Computing & Society term paper outline is due, I plan to make it a true break. I began by leaving the city for my Aunt Kathy’s house in Auburn, where I’ll spend the next few days recharging and spending quality time with family.
I can’t spend the whole Break on break, so I’ll have to return early and get to work on that term paper outline.
Classes were remarkable today for a couple reasons.
On the one hand, Prof. Keene absolutely loved my first political ideology paper comparing pre-modern and modern political thought. I was more than a little surprised; I thought the paper was barely passable and thus quite suitable for my "pass/fail" needs. I fear that the professor will expect the same level of work from subsequent papers, thus destroying the objective of taking the class solely for credit.
On the other hand, simple mechanics escaped me in my time of need. Prof. Smith administered the first exam of the term to our thermodynamics class today. I hit a wall on the first problem, a simple mechanics problem involving a projectile traveling at constant velocity (until caught). The remainder of the test flowed with relative ease, perhaps too easily. I really can’t call this one; Prof. Smith seems to be generous with partial credit so there may be hope.
