Ice Cavern Studios

And I am finished with classes at Princeton University forever. It's a weird feeling. I'm both excited and saddened to be ending things. It's really weird.

I will say that things today were rather poetic. I started off the day by going to my last precept, which was held outdoors. I had never had a precept ever take place outdoors, let alone on the McCosh Sundial. I found it highly amusing that it only took four years to actually particpate in the kind of precept found in the informational booklet.

My next lecture sas my last real lecture. The History of Rock and Roll was concluded today, with the professor and a good portion of the students, dressed in some level of hippy clothing. I am still wearing my tie-dye shirt from class. It was definetly interesting to be sitting next to a freshman I know who was in his last class for the year. Each of us reached a milestone, but yet they were both very different. I guess it's just a difference of age.

Finally, I took my last mid-term today. It wasn't anything special, just another mid-term, but it's definetly nice to know they are all gone. Yeah, definetly happy those are done.

I guess today is just a major day to reflect. I'm almost done. My time here at Princeton is getting ever so short. And it's more painfully obvious on days like today. I went to “Fristfest,” an event held by the student center. It's primarily for underclassman, and as I walked around, I just watched all the sophmores and freshmans, partially envious, partially pitifully. I feel bad because they have a lot more hell to go through, academically, but at the same time, some off the best years of their lives are still ahead of them.

I guess I suffer from senior-perspective. A strange disease that leaves one feeling odd at the end of their college career. I definetly recognize that I have become very sentamental in the past couple of weeks. But I guess it can't be helped. It's part of growing up. *shugs*

Alright, time to go celebrate. Later all.

Life and Times

So if you think life in the ivory tower is easy and wonderful, let me tell you something. DON’T BELIEVE THE FRIGGEN’HYPE!! Things here in the past month at Princeton have, been, well…shitty. At least in terms of our administration being completely retarded.

First off, I don’t know if people have been aware, but the issues of grade inflation has come up. Now, this comes up all the friggen time amongst the top east cost schools. A few years ago it was Harvard, where 90% of the class graduates with honors. Now, it’s Princeton, but unlike most schools that notice the trend and then brush it under the rug, we have decided to do something about it. So they’re capping the number of A’s given out (decided by an almost 2 – 1 ratio of the faculty).

Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if other schools were doing this as well. But they aren’t. In fact, this was passed without really talking to other schools. Instead, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel has decided to wage a one woman war on grade inflation. Essentially, she wants to be known as the woman who tackled grade inflation in the US. This leaves Princeton students in one of two categories. People who’s GPA’s have now been trivialized because they are “inflated” and those whose GPA’s are lower than those of people at other schools (who still have inflated grades). Yay screwing people in both directions.

Now, I’m all for grade deflation. I’m all for the majors being level in difficulty. I have no problem making humanities as hard as natural sciences and engineering. They current way of doing it is stupid. I’m not going to go into it, but essentially, the number of grades given out by each department per semester is capped. And this is for all classes for the semester. So people in the intro classes are competing for A’s with people in higher level classes. Doesn’t that sound fair. This is going to be great, just like a Zeppelin filled with hydrogen gas.

But haphazard grade deflation isn’t the only bonehead move of the administration this month. Nope, also consider that at the meeting, which was open to the community as well as the university press, the Dean of the Faculty, David Dobkin, told the Prince photographer to destroy the photos. ( the article can be found here ). Oops. Good work, especially since the Prince posted them anyway. But once again, making the administration look so good. It’s almost a shame that the press didn’t take this and run with it.

And in keeping with the vein of, who is the administration representing, we have Dean Deignan’s seizure of a bunch of Newman’s day t-shirts. Boy has this been fun. Citing reasonable extension of the rules, Deignan seized a bunch of shirts that had to do with Newman’s day. While I don’t support Newman’s day, and I understand the right of the university to confiscate things, the backpedaling has to stop.

First off, if you want to wash your hands of something, don’t’ take an active role. Confiscating Newman’s day t-shirts, and printing up anti-Newman’s day t-shirts kind of hints at some level of involvement. Hell, by printing the anti shirts, you actually help to raise awareness of the day itself. Good thinking.

Secondly, if you’re going to take some kind of action, accept all that comes with it. Apparently Dean Deignan isn’t all that interested in talking about her actions. How many articles are going to have to say, Dean Deignan couldn’t be reached for comment before people get fed up with it. Or could it be, that she may have acted a bit hastily? I’m not sure, but I definitely bet she wasn’t counting on objections from the faculty as well as students. Whooo, way to be. *smacks forehead*

Looking back, I’m left to wonder, what it is that the administration is trying to do. Are they speaking to each other before they act? Is this part of some master plan to make Princeton look incredibly bad to the rest of the world? Yes we’re curbing grade inflation, but do we want to be so public about it? Especially with no support from other universities? And Newman’s day. Here’s a public relation’s nightmare. I have a good idea, let’s help to portray our students as a bunch of drunkards. And let’s be very vocal about it. Don’t forget all of the freedom of speech and freedom of the press issues that these have caused. Then throw into the mix a faculty that takes issue with some of the actions taken by the administration, and you have a Norman Rockwell-like painting of an Ivy League intuition.

Sigh…

Well, at least I’m leaving soon. Although I feel sorry for those I leave behind. Although, I have a feeling that if the administration has a few more months like this, changes could be coming about.

Life and Times

So in a fusion of two things I have a great fondness for, Microsoft apperently has an internal blogging site. I think it's pretty nifty, although the design of it makes me wonder about the design of this site. I dont' know. Maybe a site redesign over the summer.

On second thought, I'll just keep things as they are and change them once I finish the other stuff I need to finish. Hehe. Nah

And just when I was about to go…

Nicole has decided to take a job at HP for the summer. Which is awesome. Not only because it's a good deal, but I get to go visit Palo Alto, California for a couple of weeks. Yay!!! Anyway, big ups to Nicole. I love you. Ok, that's all, I swear.
Sigh…this is my last week of classes here at Princeton, which is a weird experience. Hell, at this point, I only have a total of four classes left. It's weird to think that I won't be here much longer. What's weirder is to think that I'll be out in the “Real World.” I'm not sure how I feel about this. Although, not having to do the whole “class” thing and getting paid, that's gonna make it easier. I say this now. In a year, when I'm saying how I miss it, feel free to slap me. Or at least point me back here.

Alright, I'm out. More stuff (read lounging) to do.

Life and Times

Today has been long. But in a good way. I had two presentations to give today. One for graphics (partially important) and one for my independent work (very important).

My one for graphics went alright, it wasn't anything special. It was a group thing for my final project. Meh, Brian did most of the work, thankfully. I was busy with the inde work. You know how it is.

The other presentation, on the otherhand, went very well. At least I think. I managed to talk about my independent work for twenty minutes, as long as give a demo of it. That was pretty sweet. I even got to spout off my ideas of C++ over Java to Professor Kernighan (he asked about it). It's actually a big relief to have the inde work done (mostly).

This weekend looks promissing. There isn't a lot of band stuff, and there isn't a lot going on in anything. I don't have anything major due, which is also nice. My goal is to work on both my Uncle's Website (pushing for a May 1st release) and my independent work final write up (also due May 1st). I should be able to get both done. Man, this is nice. I'm almost done. I can feel it.

Ooooh, I have a major programming jones. I definetly feel a lot of coding is going to get done this weekend. And since I have my laptop, probably a lot will get done outside. It's funny, I really do enjoy programming. I don't always enjoy the all nighters I sometimes have to pull to meet deadlines, but that's part of the craft.

Oh, before I forget, big props to G and H for their perspective internships (now batting .666 for MS referals to the second round). Also break a leg to Syd in her rendition of Into the Woods.

So that's all for now. Ahhh man, it feels good. Talk to ya's later.

Life and Times

So the show is finished. And I can honestly say I'm glad I did it. It was a fun show to work with. It was also one of the easier shows I've ever done, mainly because I wasn't asked to perform all of the sound edits as well. *smiles*

I will say the last show was definetly an experience. I have done a lot of theater in my life; it's how I spent my time in high school, and I don't think I ever had such an awesome closing night. Everything went according to plan. There were no technical mishaps, the dancers looked great, there was a lot of energy. It was simply awesome. One of the things that made it so special was that one of the dancers had gotten hurt on the opening night, and came back for the final show.

What was even more cool was the intermission. Normally intermissions are boring. You generally just play some music and let it go, but for this show, I suggested having a band, who was already playing for one of the dance pieces, play for intermission. So while this had happened for each show, what was new was that two of the dancers, who were particularly good at tap, came out and did some freestyle tapping to the music, including a tap solo. It was possibly one of the most awesome things I had seen in a theater. It was so awesome, we actually let intermission run long just because no one wanted to cut the people on stage off.

So yeah, the show was really good. I'm glad I was able to be a part of it. I had a really good time and got to hang out with some cool people. Anyway, that's what happened this weekend (other than work). Alright, that's enough for now. Lata.

Life and Times