A New Beginning
May 22nd, 2008
I officially graduated from Ithaca College on May 18th, 2008 with a B.A. degree in Computer Science. Let me tell you, it feels really good to know that there won’t be any more homework, lectures, or exams in my life any time soon. I evolved a lot during my college career, developing my skills and figuring out new ways to deal with life in the “real world” (as if there is such a place). Some of this came out of my classes, but a lot of it I sort of figured out on my own—both in and out of the collegiate environment. Kind of makes me wonder if all that tuition was worth it, especially since the degree itself isn’t very meaningful to my current freelance work. I suppose a lot of the pain remains to be felt since I have a few months before the my student loan bills start showing up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I went to college here, and it was a good four years, but I’m even happier to finally just be done with it all.
The ceremony itself wasn’t anything special. Pretty boring actually, though much less drawn-out than my high school graduation, which was appreciated. Our commencement speaker was Alan Page, former professional football player and Minnesota supreme court justice. His speech was alright—the typical “you can do anything if you set your mind to it” message sprinkled between self-praise and IC-loving (at least that’s what I got out of it, I had only slept a few hours and was drawing during most of the ceremony, so I only caught bits and pieces). My favorite part, though, was when our student body president compared our college experience to womens’ underwear, which seems about right on more than one level.
I was one of only about three people to actually throw their hats.
The faculty and graduate students looked like wizards.
My school gave out commencement bling.
I'm Still Alive
April 21st, 2008
It’s been awhile since I posted anything new here, but it’s because I’ve been hella (that’s right, hella) busy over the past month. Here’s a brief rundown of what I’ve been up to:
- Much time has been put towards a group project for my Database Design class. We’re creating a database and some simple applications to keep track of college student/faculty/course records. Lots and lots of diagrams and documentation.
- I created a UNIX shell from (basically) scratch as part of a lab for my Operating Systems class. It’s tiny, and not incredibly useful, but here’s the source in case anyone is interested (I did a lot of this late at night while alternately drinking myself stupid and smashing my head into the keyboard, so the code is a tad messy).
- I learned AJAX.
- I updated the Moving Box Studios site with AJAX spicyness and worked on making things a bit more accessible (though it’s still got some ways to go).
- As always, I put a lot of work into AuditionHQ.
- I got paid for hooking these guys up with a custom version of Silk to manage their site.
- A bunch of other miscellaneous schoolwork (“it’s almost over” is my new mantra) and dealing with stuff in my personal life.
You can expect to see some more of my old essays soon.
Happy Birthday, Bubbeh!
February 15th, 2008
This weekend I’m taking a trip up to Massachusetts to visit my grandmother and celebrate her 80th birthday (she’s jewish, so she’s bubbeh to me). Eighty years of life seems like a hell of a lot to me. I’m 22 and already I feel like my brain is getting full from all the memories and experiences I’ve got packed up there.
She lives a super-active life, always going on trips and getting into all kinds of zany adventures. She’s still learning, taking college courses in her spare time. I think it’s damn impressive that she still does all that when a lot of the other people her age always seem so tired and worn out on life. She’s a great grandma too, doing her job of spoiling us grandkids (but not too much), and always willing to go out to the movies or just hang out and talk. All I can hope is that I still love life as much as she does when I’m her age.
Here’s to you, bubbeh.