I took my final exam for CS 1604 – Introduction to the Internet today. I got an A, and I’m now done with the class. Wednesday, I have my Statistics for Electrical Engineers final, and then I have my last two finals (Microprocessor System Design and Numerical Methods) on Friday. One more week, baby!
I will be in town through graduation, and it’s currently looking like I will be in Digital Design II during the second summer session.
On Sunday, nlcf joined with Campus Crusade, Athletes in Action, Cornerstone, and Blacksburg United Methodist Church (think Wesley Foundation) for a combined Easter service in Burruss Auditorium. Some of the featured speakers included student athletes and coaches, including football’s head coach Frank Beamer.
The Collegiate Times wrote an article about Beamer’s participation in the service, and they quoted me. The article is at the bottom of the front page, and I’m quoted in the top of the second column.
Overall, I thought the service was well done. Musically, there were some rough edges, but it was great seeing so many people participate in the service. The sermon in two parts was well done, and I thought all of the students and coaches who spoke did a good job. It’s always great to see celebrities talking about their faith in Christ.
It’s been a busy last few days. Between meeting with a lot of people (mostly on vtONE stuff), two tests no one was prepared for, and a random afternoon in Roanoke, I’ve kept busy. Here’s a short recap:
Monday: studying for numerical methods test
Tuesday: numerical methods test, two homework assignments that I wasn’t aware of until Monday
Wednesday: classes, random adventure to Roanoke with Chris, featuring picking up a new taillight for my car, dropping off a broken sound board, buying a lifetime supply of printer paper, Best (Worst?) Buy, Harbor Freight Tools (the weirdest hardware store ever), and Krispy Kreme. Yes, I ate five hot original glazed doughnuts in one sitting. Michael, you’re right. I’m a fattie.
Thursday: sleeping in, vtONE dinner meeting, studying for the microprocessor system design (we had no idea what was on it until Thursday evening!), random trip to Joe’s Diner after midnight.
Friday: micro test, helping Ben with getting Fedora on his laptop (part 1 – defragging the drive), Good Friday service at the local Methodist church, grilling kabobs, movie with friends, and conversations until all hours.
Today will be a relaxing day. Tomorrow is the Easter service, and it’s with a number of churches and ministries in the Burruss Auditorium. Frank Beamer (head football coach) is sharing on why the resurrection matters in his life. Should be awesome.
I’m very busy at the moment, so sorry for the blog slience. I’m presenting to the Christian Faculty Fellowship today and I have a big micro project due Monday that I need to do a lot of work on. Also, the last week has been teaching me how to pray. I should be back next week with more posts.
I had this strong desire to write a few specific things in one of my (paper) journals. I get the journal out and discover I’ve lost my good pen. I then realize how bad tomorrow would have been if I had gone through all my classes without a proper writing implement.
It’s small things like these that constantly remind me that God is involved in my life.
A question I get frequently is “What is a bolt in the blue?” Since I’ve been known to give bad answers, I’m hoping that this post will clear up the confusion. First of all, I’ve been using variations on “bolt in blue” to identify myself online since 1997. The story of where I learned the phrase goes back a few years farther, back to fourth grade.
When I was in fourth grade, one of my previous year’s teachers, Mrs. Weis, enlisted my help with several of her projects that she wanted done on the computer. There are so many stories that I could tell about Mrs. Weis that are funny and crazy, but one of the things that she wanted us to learn from her was to do “random acts of kindness”. She modeled these random acts of kindness with her own life, often leaving goodies for all the other teachers in their mailboxes, with some kind of note attached. She enlisted my help with one of these notes, which simply read “Guess from who? A bolt from the blue.” I designed a flyer that featured a lightning bolt in the background and printed her lots of copies, probably to my parents’ dismay, as our newfangled color inkjet printer got a workout. I liked the phrase, but incorrectly remembered it as “a bold in the blue”. Not that there’s much difference, but Mrs. Weis is a master at using old expressions, so I’m sure she had it right.
A few years later, I needed an identity for use on this new thing called the internet. After a short lived run with another identity, I wanted to pick something I could hang onto for a while. Somehow, “a bolt in the blue” popped into my head. Since then, I’ve used variations on it for all kinds of online aliases. Especially with “from” becoming “in”, the phrase has come to be uniquely mine. After nearly a decade, it very much feels like its mine.
What does the phrase actually mean? Phrase Finder suggests that it means surprise. Answers.com says it means “a sudden, unexpected event”. It’s an older idiom that was used by several authors, starting around 1840. I’ve been told that I’m full of surprises, so I think the phrase fits me well. And I love pictures of lightning striking. The phrase is really supposed to be about lightning striking while the sky is cloudless and blue, but I’m sticking with the storm photos. They’re just so cool–high contrast, with a purple, almost ultraviolet glow.
I’ve now been to all my classes once. Here’s a course review:
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS: this class doesn’t seem too bad, but the lecture is in a hot room and the professor is Indian with a very low monotone. It has weekly homework, but I can put up with it since it’s my only TR class and it triple counts (major and both minors).
INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNET: what a joke. An online course that hasn’t changed much since it was introduced in 1994. I’ve already taken 2 of the 16 online quizzes for the class. 100% so far. Too bad it doesn’t look like I will be able to just do the whole class in an afternoon, since the quizzes aren’t all available yet.
OPERATING SYSTEMS: this semester, we’re using PintOS instead of Linux as the operating system for the class. This class looks like a lot of thinking, but four of the five projects are group projects. The projects also require extensive documentation. And I think McQuain has hijacked the projects for this course now. At least I don’t have him as my professor–my professor seems like he will not be anything like a McQuain clone. Thankfully!
MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM DESIGN: JP has never taught the course before, but I have a good feeling about him. He’s encouraging us to make the course interactive. His notes seem well prepared, although it’s his first time teaching the course and it’s outside his area of research. I feel no need to rush out and switch to Thweatt’s 9am section. I’d rather have the extra sleep and not have a hole in my schedule, although the hole would make a good lunch time.
STATISTICS FOR ENGINEERS: what a class! It’s a large class, but it’s going to rock. The professor comes in and goes “ok, who’s heard stories about me?” Every hand goes up. From how class went, I can see why. He told us we didn’t need to buy the $90.80 book. He told us the only reason it was required is because the author has an office across the hall from him. He also told us that the only difference the version that says “for Electrical Engineers” on the front has from the cheaper normal version is the words on the cover. He seems to love doing things to upset the administration. He referred to the provost as “an asshole” within the first few minutes of class. Another choice quote said while going over the syllabus: “I used to do quizzes to make people come to class. Now I just don’t care.” He then went on to recommend that we stay home when we don’t feel like coming to class. Nice. I’ll still come to class–I want to learn some statistics and I don’t want to miss his stories!
So once again the university partially cancelled exams due to weather. My last exam that should have been at 7:45 this morning is now at 7:45 tomorrow morning. Thankfully, the professor is allowing us to take it at 3pm today, so it won’t throw off my snowshoe plans. I still have one project to finish up. It’s due at midnight, so tomorrow’s drive to snowshoe could be interesting. I still don’t know where I’m going after snowshoe. Probably either to my parents’ for Christmas or to Richmond to spend more time with Kevin.
Exams:
Signals and Systems: 7:45am tomorrow
Electronics I: 5pm tomorrow
CS: 7:45am tomorrow
Projects:
CS #5: midnight tomorrow (currently up to 204/300)
CS #6: midnight tomorrow (not yet submitted)
Thursday afternoon:
Relaxation, let me know if you want to do something
I’m thinking of throwing something nice on the grill for dinner
Friday:
Snowshoe at the crack of dawn with my former roommate Tomayto
Break schedule coming soon!
The semester is almost over! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
These last two weeks are still crazy for me. I have 3 projects still to do (one with full technical report), a homework assignment, a test, and five finals. It should be crazy, but this semester will be over before I know it. It’s been one rollercoaster of a semester–so much awesome stuff has happened, but the five in major classes nearly killed me. Next semester should be better.
Time to go study for my Signals and Systems test tonight.