To start, a few that don’t require much explanation besides a bullet-point mention:

• Having a single
• Volleyball (finally made it to playoffs)
• Grades (3 A’s and a B+)
• Getting a literature minor (a third one I wasn’t expecting to get until I found out I qualified this fall)

Now for those that require a little more explanation.

All of my other favorite awesome things have to do with my goals I set at the beginning of the year and modified at the midpoint.  Since this section’s going to need a little more reading than the previous section, here’s one of my favorite “blocks” of songs I played on Audiophonic this term.

I am still having a kickass senior project.  Development, while a little difficult at times because we’re unfamiliar with the platform, is enjoyable, and everyone has really had a hand in creating the final product.  I haven’t done much work on the game mechanics side of things, but the UI, learning to use interface builder, and making sure views transition correctly is all my handiwork (although the transitions got a major boost from another part of the team).  I can’t overstate how great our client has been through this whole process–he’s a Rose grad, so he knows that while we get stressed at times, we always produce great work.  There’s a great feeling knowing that even though your client travels a lot, even though you usually get his out of office email reply when you send him a status update, your questions/comments/requests WILL get a response within 48 hours.  Usually much sooner.  He’s responsive, he understands how we feel about feature creep (and hates to do it, but his ideas usually ARE good), and most importantly, he understands how busy we are.  That said, it felt really good to know that we blew him away with what we had done for the version of the iPhone app that was presented at the Senior Projects Expo.  Knowing that he felt really glad with what we had to show him going into the expo really made me feel confident it what my team’s doing.

The expo itself was great–our advisor, knowing our team’s potential to do something creative for the expo, encouraged us to go beyond the typical presentation.  We didn’t get everything we wanted to have at our table, but were still happy with what we came up with.  Our first goal was to have our poster stand out.  Using some of the original graphics from the game for our title/section headers made it fit in with the game, and the backgroun made sure things would stand out.  Our game is primarily targeted at a female audience, and as such, is pink.  We had one of two options with the presentation of the game:

1. Embrace the pink
2. Be Lame

We chose to take option 1.  I knew exactly which poster was ours when I went to pick it up from the printer–the inside of the tube was intensely pink.  I started having some doubts about whether it was too pink–I wanted something that would stick out, but not be retina-searing.  That seemed bad.  I made the executive decision to have another poster printed up with the game’s original gradient (which isn’t as intense, and still looked good), and brought the first version of the poster to our advisor meeting.  Our advisor thought it looked fine and actually liked it.  After talking with him and the group before our teleconference with our client, I sort of went back on my initial overreaction, but it still seemed like a good idea to have the second poster made.  That way we could decide as a group which background better represented the game.  The second poster got botched–no background was visible at all.  We wanted a pink background over a white one, so the carzy poster stayed.  And I’m sort of glad it did.  After four years of looking at the senior project posters, I didn’t expect my legacy in the department to be a giant pink poster, but I’m not sure I’d want it any other way now.  If nothing else, it’s certainly had the faculty talking (Sriram told me point blank at lunch that he didn’t realize how pink the poster was until after the expo).

We also wanted to have some sort of video loop going at the presentation showing the game in action, but couldn’t find good free screen capture software for the mac that didn’t leave a watermark or export solely to Flash.  Our replacement, a powerpoint file that did the same thing and showed the changes between our version and the original game, actually ended up working better and probably was more professional looking than our video would have been.  We also had a soundtrack (well, an iTunes playlist of appropriately-themed songs) for our booth–perhaps not the most innovative of things, but it was another touch I thought our display should have, and aside from adjusting the volume, it seemed to go over well.

The projects got featured on the news and on the RHIT website.  The local news stayed for what felt like 30 seconds and only talked to the booth next to us (doing an educational-themed project that hasn’t tested its interface with actual educators, as far as I know, which seems like an egregious mistake) before disappearing completely.  We got featured because we were setting up in the background and had an iPhone project.  iPhone is still a buzzword.  The news likes buzzwords.  The reporter from the Rose-Hulman PR office was a little better–he talked with our group for about 15 minutes and took a photo of our whole group, but none of the information we gave him or the picture showed up in the actual report.  He assumed both of the mobile groups are working on the iPhone (not true) and left it there because of the secret nature of our projects.  Oh well.  At least we got press.

The other awesome thing in my life right now pertains to that whole “get a job” goal I’ve had all year.  The endgame.  The goal at the end of all this schooling.  I’ve actually got a company pursuing me, and it feels amazing.  A week before the career fair (which I wasn’t planning on attending–none of the companies interested me), I got an email from a Liberty Mutual representative letting me know they’d be at the career fair, the career services office had emailed them my resume, and they were interested in seeing me as a result.  I was thrilled, especially when I learned they had an office in Seattle and a rotational program that appealed to me.  I talked with them at the fair, they seemed interested, and by the end of the week I had been asked to interview in the career services office a couple weeks later.

The more I looked at their website, the more Liberty Mutual fit as a company.  I’m a math dork–others in my major have avoided any additional math courses beyond what was required of them, but I’ve embraced the additional courses.  There’s something really cool about how you can use math to model most things, so I’ve pursued minors in math and computational science, both of which will come in handy–Liberty Mutual is a company that has a lot of data coming in, and knowing how to use that data and creat models from it seems like a particularly handy skill.  I’m hoping I can bring that to them should they hire me.

Anyways, the interview rolls around, and despite maybe needing a haircut, I looked good (or at least something approaching professional).  I don’t recall everything the interviewer and I talked about (and probably shouldn’t, in case there’s a non-disclosure in place), but I do remember a fun part of the interview.  My interviewer saw that I was a DJ at WMHD and asked me to announce one of my favorite songs (I chose 24 Hours) in 10 seconds.  Despite some initial fumbling when I tried to give some background on why I chose the group, I apparently impressed him with my delivery–I sounded “like I’d had plenty of practice” doing that (a year of doing that for 2 shows certainly helped).

I was told I’d hear back in about 2 weeks.  I had a positive response by Friday of the same week.  I must have done something right.  they were prepared to have me do another interview, but needed to know which position I wanted to pursue, a software developer role in Seattle or a Systems Analyst position elsewhere (my work this summer was of a somewhat SA-related nature).  I was confused-I thought the first rotation was a business rotation.  After some emailing back and forth, it turns out I wasn’t able to get into that program (they were filling the last position for that already), and this was a similar, non-rotational program.  I was a little disappointed, but I seem to remember the interviewer saying something about the possibility of getting in on the other program the next time it rolls around as an employee, so all is not lost.  that sort of sealed things for me–I was going to pursue the position in Seattle, as it fit closer with my skillset/goals.  That interview’s coming up sometime this month.  I’m pumped, partially because I get flown out, partially because this seems like a good fit.

So there we have it. Awesome things.  Hopefully I won’t be quite as swamped next term–it’s taken me 3 days to get this post together.  Looking to spring (my last quarter at Rose–amazing it’s already come so fast.  It feels like only a year ago I was moving onto campus and starting a livejournal for back home).  After a term of having a single, I will have another roommate this term–an exchange student.  We’ve talked briefly on Facebook, and things seem to be getting along well.  Hopefully when we meet face to face on Sunday that feeling continues.  On to the final lap–it’s not a victory lap, yet; I’ve still got 10 more weeks to push myself hard to reach the finish.

Here’s what’s in store after the jump:

• Cold Drinks with Cool Profs
• Senior Project Presentations
• In-Person Client Meeting
• I avert disaster
• Finals Week
• Driving Home/Break

I finally got a chance to go to Cold Drinks with Cool Profs.  Hooray for finally being of age!  I’ve wanted to go ever since they were first announced sophomore year–not for the alcohol, but for the opportunity to socialize with my fellow CS/SE majors and profs.  I’ve realized for some time that while I don’t entirely “fit in” with my peers in regards to my interests and career goals, and I don’t want to completely ostracize myself from them.  Problem: I’m kind of awkward in larger-sized social situations.  I like smaller groups, to say the least.  I wasn’t completely out of my depth that night, though–my entire senior project team was there, so I hung out with them and we talked much of the night, eventually joined by our advisor (who continues to be awesome) and a few other students.  I left a bit early with  the member of my group I rode over with (I had no idea where the pub was, and trying to find it at night didn’t seem to be the best strategy), relaxed and ready for the next day’s presentations.

Things learned at CDwCP:

1. Whatever beer I sampled was not to my taste at all.
2. I should find out the name of what I’m sampling before I take some so I can remember not to get it again.
3. Strongbow cider is more to my taste preference.  This is my occasional drink of choice for the time being.

Senior project presentations went really well.  Radio has done wonders for my presentation skills–I’m still a little nervous when presenting, but nowhere near as bad as I used to be.  Since last time one of our group members was wearing a suit (he had an interview the same day), I felt I should continue the tradition and at least wear a blazer.  Aside from some minor technical difficulties when demoing our prototype (the simulator was offscreen when the laptop resolution changed, so we had to make a quick fix), we handled ourselves well and were able to answer any questions.  Our client had previously signed off on our use cases, and was very pleased with the job I had done organizing them.  I’m really happy with where we’re at, and although some of the documentation I had hoped to get done by quarter’s end is still unfinished, we’re at a really good place going into this next quarter.

I don’t want to badmouth any of the other teams, but I was really confused by one of the projects.  Two teams are working on a mega-project, one part of the team developing a game maker for educators and another team developing an online distribution system for games created with the game maker.  On paper, this seems like a good idea–educators working from the same textbooks could prepare a game like jeopardy or something that could be shared.  However, in the demo of their project, I’m not sure they’ve done enough to make their program easy to use.  They’ve changed the names of programming concepts such as “objects” and “actions” into theater terms such as “actors”, “costumes”, “props”, etc., but it’s really not clear how one is supposed to use/create any of these things.  While game ideas such as Jeopardy and Number Munchers were tossed out, the demo they did made neither of these.  Looking at it from the perspective of an educator, it still looks far too complicated–I wouldn’t spend the time to make a game when I can just develop questions and draw a jeopardy grid on the whiteboard.  They mentioned getting a group of educators to act as some sort of advisory committee–I hope they find some and soon before they make something no one will want to use.

With the presentation out of the way, there was only one more major event for senior project this term: meeting the client.  Originally I wanted to ask our client some questions about our non-functional requirements, but once I learned the project manager of the other team being sponsored by our client had suggested Sonka’s Pub (again), I realized this was less formal meeting, more informal getting-to-know-you.  I made a note to e-mail the client my questions in the morning.  The best thing I did pre-meeting: Google search the client’s name to figure out what he looked like.  This was amazingly helpful when there are 8 people who know they’re meeting one of the higherups at this company, but don’t know who he is.  As soon as he entered the back area of Sonka’s we were all gathered in, I immediately recognized him and waved him over.  Our client (let’s call him B as continually typing out “our client” is getting a bit ridiculous) is AMAZING.  So collected, so funny, so warm with all of us.  I was envisioning something more formal, but just shooting the shit with him for a couple of hours about Terre Haute, Rose, our projects, etc. was amazingly relaxing.  When he offered to buy drinks, I remembered what I had learned Tuesday and got a Strongbow (I didn’t drive) to enjoy over the course of the night.  I wasn’t drunk, but the drink helped loosen me up a bit so I wasn’t quite so tense with B.  I’d like to think I made a good impression on him.

There’s been a minor revolt in our kitchen.  CS’s cooking has caused 2 of the 6 who normally dine in our apartment on weekends to go out when it’s his turn.  If I have to lay down one more time from eating something he’s put too much salt in, that number will rise to 3.  He was scheduled to cook this week, and when he was describing what he was planning, something involving linguine and peanut sauce, it didn’t look too well.  His logic behind the choice of recipe (I use that term loosely–I have yet to see CS use a recipe when cooking) was that it was low-fat.  I jokingly accused him of saying I had a weight problem, and he said he had been to Baskin-Robbins.  This is a person who has to get belts in the boys section of Walmart because he can not find the right length in the men’s section.  I can find belts in the men’s section, and I’m only slightly larger than he is.  The claim that we need something low fat is ridiculous.  The night he was scheduled to cook, however, he came in at 5 needing something different, since he’d have to get a lot of stuff at Walmart.  I suggested we make chicken cacciatore with some pre-made sauce I had that only needed chicken and pasta, since it’d be quicker and feed the people he had invited from next door.  I went with him to get groceries, then came back and made dinner while he did the dishes that were in the sink.  At dinner, many compliments were paid to our “collaboration”, as CS put it.  To be fair, he collaborated by driving me to walmart so he could get stuff from the pharmacy section of walmart while I gathered the ingredients and cooked dinner, but I’ve learned to choose my battles at this point.  Disaster temporarily averted.

Finals week wasn’t bad.  I only had a paper and a take-home exam due for my lit classes that Tuesday before I was free to go.  The take-home final was done by 11 am Monday, and I completed 3 of the 5-6 pages I needed for the paper by 2.  I wanted to get in to the prof’s office to have him look at what I had written and the direction I was going before he got swamped with requests, so I headed over to his office, expecting a max wait of 30 minutes.  I waited for an hour and a half (the person before me took 45 minutes to have their paper looked at), but it was totally worth it.  After giving me some good pointers on correcting what I had and suggesting some places to push myself, the prof brought up that I almost have a minor in lit.  After this term, I’ll have gained another minor by accident.  That will be three minors total by the end of the year.  I’m pumped about that–I’ve taken classes that have interested me and managed to profit from them.  I’ve really liked Dr. Taylor as a professor–he’s pushed me as a writer because he knows what I’m capable of.  Hopefully my final paper lived up to that potential.  I’m proud of how I did in all my classes–A in senior project and romanticism, B+ in Computational Science, and B in Modernism, and a GPA that’s now getting close to 3.25 territory.  Now to keep this momentum going.

The drive back went pretty well.  It was raining in a lot of Illinois/Wisconsin, but I can handle rain.  The last part of the drive felt like it took forever–I’m sorry, Wisconsin, but you’re boring.  Really boring.  Break’s been pretty uneventful–I’ve done some Objective-C work so I can be of better use during the coding part of the project this term, gone to the chiropractor, gotten my hair cut.  Thanksgiving was fun–since my aunt that usually does Thanksgiving is moving soon, we just did things for ourselves.  The recipe for turkey with stuffing we used from Alton Brown was fantastic, and the stuffing was delicious (I particularly liked that it used dried cherries), and the pumpkin pie we got from Costco was probably the size of my head in diameter, if not larger.  All in all, a good meal that I’m happy to have helped with.  Met up with an old friend from high school today for coffee and a (bad 80s) movie, and although I was really nervous (something they picked up on), I think it went well for the most part.  As I was driving them home, I was entirely honest with them, and things seem to have been reciprocated.  I’m going to try to move things a little further next break when we get together again.  If nothing else, now I know I can call anytime and should message more often.

I’m ready to head back to Rose and attack winter term.  The drive may be long, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the apartment as well.

As a bonus for getting through this blog entry, here’s what I listened to while I composed it:

• Half of My Heart, John Mayer
• Cheap Kicks, Noisettes
• Fire On High, Electric Light Orchestra
• Assassin, John Mayer
• Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Radiohead
• The Fear, Lily Allen
• Every Now and Then, Noisettes
• Too Much Food, Jason Mraz
• We Talk Like Machines, Savoir Adore
• Portions for Foxes, Rilo Kiley
• Party Hard, Andrew W.K.
• Effigy, Andrew Bird
• Too Blue, 7 Worlds Collide
• In My Place, Coldplay
• Fences, Phoenix
• Don’t Stop Believing, Glee Cast

From CNN:

As Thompson sees it, any reasonable employer would pounce on an applicant with her academic credentials, which include a 2.7 grade-point average and a solid attendance record. But Monroe’s career-services department has put forth insufficient effort to help her secure employment, she claims.

“They’re supposed to say, ‘I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?’ They’re not doing that,” she said.

Right, because every employer in New York City is just dying to have a student with a B- average and a degree in “Business Administration in Information Technology” work for them.

Ms. Thompson, here’s a couple points you may want to consider:

• A 2.7 GPA is nothing to sneeze at.
• A solid attendance record means nothing to an employer.  Showing up for work is expected of you, and it doesn’t add anything to your GPA to say that you attended every class.
• College Career Services centers can help you find jobs to apply for, but they don’t set up the interviews for you–you need to put effort into finding a job as well.

continuing with the story:

She suggested that Monroe’s Office of Career Advancement shows preferential treatment to students with excellent grades. “They favor more toward students that got a 4.0. They help them more out with the job placement,” she said.

Besides the last part of her statement giving me a headache grammatically, it’s completely untrue.  Career Advancement offices probably try to help everyone out with their job hunt–it’s not their fault if students with higher GPAs get more job offers.  That just makes sense.

Going through the actual filed statement is even more hilarious.

• Proofread, proofread, proofread.  If you’re going to misspell words like “tuition” and “reimbursement”, at least do it consistently
• $70,000 + $2,000 does not equal $75,000
• It is not the college’s responsibility to make sure you’re called for interviews.

And finally: it might not be the best idea to sue your Alma Mater over not being able to find a job if you’re trying to find a job.  I’m just saying.