A Day Late

It’s been a while since I posted an entry. I expected work to pick up a little when fall semester started but I’ve been busier than I anticipated. There’s a lot I’d like to accomplish before the end of the year and it seems the list keeps getting longer (or at least not any shorter) and the time to accomplish it all is disappearing.

On top of all that I’m seriously considering something that I never thought I would…going back to school. I’ve started working on my graduate school application and it’s quite possible that this time next year, I’ll be a student again. Feelings are mixed. I’m still planning to continue working full-time while going to school (I know…obviously I learned nothing from my undergrad experience).

The next few years should be interesting. Life sure hasn’t developed like I thought it would. I’m not saying there’s anything I’d choose to do differently, but I never would have guessed this is where i’d be. It should be exciting to see how the next 5 years turn out.

It looks to be a rainy and overcast day. None the less, it’s gonna be a beautiful day. Did I mention Graduation Commencement is today?

I just finished taking my first final. It was actually for an independent study class I signed up for last year. All I can say is it feels good to have it over with. Now I have less than 2 weeks of classes left and then my other four finals scattered from from April 18th - 22nd and finally graduation on the 24th and 25th. I can hardly believe it’s almost here. I wonder what I’ll do with all my new spare time. Hmm…maybe take up a new hobby or something. Actually, I should probably work on finding a new job before I do anything. That should be interesting.

We had an interesting discussion in my Software Design class on Friday. We were discussing the role and necessity of “politics” in the workplace. I have to admit, politics really has a negative connotation for me, and I think it does for most people. Before class I’d have probably defined it something like “attempting to make yourself look better than others, often at their expense.” However, we were discussing it under more positive terms (some might disagree if there is such a thing).

Basically my instructor wanted us to realize that “politics” is essential in everything you do, particularly in business. He said anytime you adapt, or change the way you interact, with one person you’re essentially participating in politics. If you had asked me before class what I thought of “office politics” I probably would have become pretty emphatic in my disgust. However, I’d never thought of it in the terms we were discussing.
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I was walking to my Computer Graphics class on friday afternoon and noticed both my shoelaces were untied. Rather than risk the extra 50 feet to the classroom I decided to sit down on a bench and tie them. Not too exciting, right? Class was alright, but as I was getting up to leave I grabbed my book bag and reached for my day planner, only to realize it wasn’t there. I know what you’re thinking, so you lost your day planner replacing that would cost $50 or so (my schedule isn’t that valuable). Well…the fact my iPaq was inside my day planner was what caused a little distress on my part. I quickly realized I probably left it sitting on the bench where I tied my shoelaces but returned to find it no where in sight. As a last hope I stopped by the Lost and Found to see if it had been turned in, which it hadn’t.
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It’s been a few days since I’ve posted an entry. Not because I haven’t had anything to say, just because I haven’t had the time to say it. All of my CS classes had projects due this week (1 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday). Now that I have them behind me I thought I’d take a minute to post. The project I did for my graphics class was kind of interesting. I wrote a program in C++ using openGL to draw a 3D sphere. Then added some functions to put the sphere in motion and have it bounce off the walls and such. We were only allowed to use the openGL functions to change the color and paint a single pixel. I added the ability to change the radius of the sphere, change it’s velocity components, add or take away gravity, etc. I also added a second sphere that would “cut away” part of sphere 1. All of this really wasn’t that hard to do, and I sort of enjoyed it.

I thought about posting the code for this but as is the case for most of the programs I write for my classes, I would never admit to writing such code. It’s a shame it has to be that way but it’s a result of the nature of the system. Specifically that mediocrity is passing. If I’m writing something for work or personal use I always take the time to make my code look nice and use proper structures and programming techniques. When it comes to my assignments for school…not so much (can you say global variables, and lots of them?). Maybe in the future I’ll take the time to rewrite this properly and post it. I’m sure all the future CS455 students would love that (assuming this will still be a required project).

BYU has an interesting department called the testing center. The idea behind the testing center is to provide a large building with proctors to administer exams for the university courses. This enables instructors to have their exams administered by the testing center thus allowing them to teach during a class where they would normally be giving an exam. It’s also nice for students because an exam at the testing center is usually administered over a few days and since its open from 10am to 10pm it provides schedule flexibility to take an exam.

All this is great but it has it’s dark side. If we didn’t have the testing center the instructors would have to administer their midterms during an hour they have for class. However, teachers who use the testing center tend to make their exams significantly longer than 1 hour. This is because there’s no set time limit in the testing center. I’ve honestly taken exams that I’ve spent over 3 hours working on. I think this is an abuse of the system. I’d much rather take a test in class for an hour then spend 3 hours sitting in the testing center. The testing center is truly a place I’ve grown to hate.

It’s funny how time can make you second guess yourself. I mentioned the other day about my interview with IBM. Well, at the time I was pretty confident about how it went (regardless of my leg falling asleep, and having to hobble out like a cripple). However, since then I can’t help thinking things like “why did you say that?” or “why didn’t you say that?” I remember at what point he asked me to describe a technical problem I faced at work recently, and how I resolved it. So what was the best thing I came up with? Fixing a printing problem (UGH!!!). I’m sure he was VERY impressed. Naturally since then I’ve thought of quite a few things I would have preferred to mention. Well, not much I can do about it now. Still, I may as well hope for the best. I guess what they say is true, hindsight is 20/20.