I made a 99/100 on my Soci of Aging midterm! AWESOME!

Also, apparently my TA is color-blind, and therefore I changed the color scheme for a third time for my WWW class. But baring that, he did give me an 11/10 on the last assignment (Struts). I also just finished the latest program assignment for that class (writing the main application as a Java Applet, which is “old” technology in the meaning that it is no longer widely used since things like “Flash” were developed. Even webstart is 10000x better).

No April Fools here. I didn’t really participate this year on either end (receiving or giving). But I liked the fact that YouTube was Rick Rolling everyone today.

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I just wanted to say congrats to Tabitha for getting HIGHEST honors!

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Here is the current result:

Course Id	Course Description	Cr- Hrs	Days	Meeting Times	Bldg	Room	Instructor
COMP575 001	INTRO COMP GRAPHICS	3.0	TR	03:30PM-04:45PM	SITTERSON	0011	MERRELL, PAUL
COMP590 090	TOPICS COMPUTER SCI	3.0	TR	02:00PM-03:15PM	UNKNOWN		WANG, WEI
HIST260 001	E EUROPE SINCE 1780	3.0	MWF	11:00AM-11:50AM	GREENLAW	0431	BRYANT, CHAD
HIST260 602	RECITATION	.0	F	12:00PM-12:50PM	SAUNDERS	0322	STAFF
HIST262 001	HOLOCAUST	3.0	TR	09:30AM-10:45AM	MURPHEY	0116	BROWNING, CR
HIST262 607	REC	.0	F	10:00AM-10:50AM	PHILLIPS	0328	STAFF
MUSC284 001	BEETHOVEN	3.0	MWF	02:00PM-02:50PM	HILL	0103	WOERNER, FELIX

Note: “Topics in computer science” == Bioalgorithms .

Problems: 1) I want the Eastern Europe since 1780 recitation moved to Friday at 11am, but the registration system want let me since the class is listed as a MWF class (when it should be listed as MW since it has R/F recitations). If this can’t happen, then I won’t cry over it.

2) No marching band because it was erroneously put as a “TR 4-6 and TR 6-8″ class when it should be a “F 4-6 and a TR 6-8″ class and therefore I can’t sign up for it until this is resolved.

Other than that, I am set to go. I, for one, welcome my senior year overlords.

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I finally met my department adviser today, Henry Fuchs (wiki). In short, he is a pretty cool guy. He deals with a lot of graphics programming and research with “Offices of the future” and “Wide area visuals“. He also has a kick-ass office setup: he has three projectors side by side + his MacBook’s screen. Very awesome.

Anywho, after chatting with him for almost an hour (!!) I came out knowing more about what he does and has done (binary space partitioning, scroll down to timeline and you can see that in the early 80s he had some influential work with it. Also: Doom was (one of) the first game based off of this type of graphics rendering). I even learned a bit about his own background when I explained my interest in being a History minor and studying the Holocaust/Eastern Europe since 1780 as he originates from that part of the world and being Jewish, his family was affected by the Holocaust.

He also recommended that I try and do some sort of research next year. I might look into this for Spring semester.

I didn’t, however, leave with my PIN, but that was because of web page problems. I’ll get it later when the web page works.

So here is my current (newer) tentative schedule for next semester:

Hist 262 Holocaust TR 9:30-10:45am
-Rec on F at 10-10:50 or 11-11:50am
Comp 590 Bioalgorithms TR 2-3:15pm (<– 5th class, will drop if I don’t like it)
Comp 575 Intro to Graphics TR 3:30-4:45

Hist 260 Eastern Europe since 1780 MWF 11-11:50am
-Rec on F at 11-11:50am or 12-12:50pm
Musc 284 Beethoven MWF 2-2:50pm

Alternative: Comp 523 Software Engineering Lab TR 12:30-1:45pm

And marching band. So I still have one class I can drop. I’ll have 2 histories to my minor, a music to fulfill that elective requirement, and 2 comps as pure electives (one will count to major, other will just be an elective). I still need one more specific comp class that I’ll take in the Spring (Programming Language Concepts), plus two more histories to finish the minor, plus one class of whatever (research/independent study with a prof???).

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: time is running out and I’m going to be graduating before I know it! I wish I knew what I was doing next.

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I meant to write about this earlier, but I’ve been “busy” with Spring break and seriously busy finishing up some programming assignments due this week.

The day before Spring Break I walked around UNC campus and snapped some pictures of various sites. I also took most of the pictures at three different exposures, and combined them to make a HDR picture that was then tonemapped. You can see my results here or if you want to see larger versions you can go here to my fresh flickr account.

I also took a couple of panoramic pictures, but you can barely see their details on Facebook, and my flickr limit for the month is already filled up (not to mention files have to be less than 5mb, these panoramic pictures are about 20mb each at full size).

Pretty neat, huh? Even with my little dinky camera (compared to professional cameras) I can create some impressive photography.

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WTF?

WBC were already at her funeral in Athens, and now they want to picket around thousands of college students? Good luck with that.

I don’t know how a student being brutally murdered has anything to do with “God hating fags” but that must be one hell of a grade level one connect-the-dots picture in the eyes of these bigots. They make me so sick.

In case you haven’t been watching the news or keeping up with the story: both of Eve Carson’s killers have been captured (story via CNN).

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I’m now back home. I’ve got the database back up and running on my laptop for the mean time because I didn’t bring my desktop back. No point since I won’t hardly be on it much, anyways.

Catch-up: The weekend flew by. I studied like crazy Monday and Tuesday for my Networking exam. However, did not put as much emphasis on my WWW exam, which was only worth 10%. Tuesday night I ended up only getting about 6 hours of sleep, waking up at 6:30 am to shower and continue studying. I felt that my Networking exam went very well (worth 25%), but my WWW not as great. I felt that the WWW focused too much on the more recent programming assignment—the one that I haven’t even started yet because it isn’t even due until after Spring Break! But he still put questions (quite a heavy focus) on the midterm about it! BAH! Talk about some major BS on my part.

After class I took about a 2-3 hour nap. Sean woke me up at 7 pm in time for dinner. Earlier in the week, I ran into Sean talking to a communications friend of his, Veronica. She had invited Sean to dinner Wednesday night and passed the invitation on to me. So we went together to this couple’s apartment off-campus. The (married) couple, Anna and Patrick, were only about 4-5 years older than us, and they apparently had a weekly invite dinner for all of their friends. Pretty awesome! So we got to meet a lot of their Chinese friends (FYI, the couple is white, Veronica is also Chinese) that they met at their church, the RCCC (Raleigh Chinese Christian Center). Long story short, we had some great food (“Hawaiian” Chicken sandwiches and some awesome dessert) and fellowship until about 10 or 11 pm. I could relate to Patrick pretty well as he currently works for Lenovo. All in all, Sean and I had a great time and I foresee us returning to future dinners.

Then Thursday. Well, the day started out great. I slept in late to catch up on lost winks and my Aging class was let out early. Since it was such a beautiful day outside, I decided to wander around campus and take pictures of peculiar things (bell tower, old well, the pit, the quad, Sitterson, and some upper quad objects until about 200 Hispanic elementary kids conquered the region). I then return to the dorm room to find out some dreaded news: Eve Carson was dead.

Let me step back up a bit. Wednesday morning, at about 5:00 am, there was a reported shooting off-campus. Students were alerted via text messages and e-mails, but 6+ hours later at around 11:00 am. Since it was off campus and the body had yet to be identified, then it hadn’t become too much of a news item. Until Thursday, when it was officially announced that our current Student Body President, Eve Carson, was shot multiple times and at least once in the head.

That news simply sank in my heart. I immediately checked the DTH website for confirmation and I simply couldn’t believe what I was reading. Apparently the crime was marked as a random act of violence, but what a random person to choose—none other than the head of our Student Body!

I never really knew Eve on any sort of personally level, but I did get to meet her face to face during her dorm storming last year and by her personality and platform, she won my vote. I’ve spotted her many times around campus or on Franklin street or when she led many of the “pep rallies” that the Marching Tar Heels attended (Fall Fest, Feast Before the Fight). And of course I read about her numerous times in the DTH (where I did and still believe that their picture on file for her should have been replaced by one that better accentuated her beauty—the one they used just didn’t do her justice!).

So I attended the address that Chancellor Jame Moeser gave at 3 pm in the quad. And what a sad address that was to give. Moeser has most certainly not had the easiest time as Chancellor. In but only the past few years we have experienced the death of a student falling out of a window in a freak accident, our mascot getting hit crossing a road at a tournament, and an insane former graduate driving his vehicle through campus. In the words of Gary Jules, “It’s a very, very mad world.”

I’m now home, after quite a traffic jam in Chapel Hill (it took about an hour to get out of the city alone because part of Airport Road was blocked off for one reason or another). Oh what a somber Spring Break this is going to be. Rest in peace, Eve Carson. You will be sorely missed.

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Her car was found abandoned.

Video from CNN.

Story from CNN.

Other updates on DTH.

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I plan on becoming a history minor!  Oh what a paradox that is!

So my tentative plan is to take Operating Systems, Intro to Computer Graphics, Music as Culture, and two histories (Holocaust and whatever Jamie/Patterson and I decide on).

If the going gets rough, then I plan on dropping a class to make the going better.  More likely than not it’ll be Operating Systems which is supposed to be one of the hardest comp classes you can take here.

I also regrettably will not have Fridays off, mainly because of history recitations.  I could put the recitations on Thursdays, but then I would have three classes, plus the recitation (or two!), plus marching band.  I must draw the line somewhere.

Another thing I hope to do next Spring is play clarinet for pep band.  I love drumline during Fall marching band, but not so much in the Spring.  I’ve been debating this a lot over the past few weeks and I think this would be a better situation for me (more playing at games, better possibility to travel, if I choose to do so).

Ah, see, change isn’t so bad after all!

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Hey, I forgot to mention I was asked if I wanted a job at ITS here yesterday.  Well, one of my CS friends that works there asked me, his boss wanted him to find some good people to work there.  It’d be about half technical/half administrative, but I said no.  Mainly because I just don’t see my self working a full (haha) part-time job at school.  I enjoy what little free time I have now.

Classes for next semester:  the CS department isn’t offering many upper level courses next semester.  So this is what my schedule tentatively looks like at this moment.

COMP 530 Operating System by Jeffay himself (head of CS department) MW 2-3:15.  This will be hard, very hard.
COMP 575 Introduction to Computer Graphics by Skarbez (no idea who this is) TR 3:30-4:45.
(MUSC 286 Music as culture by Vlhova TR 2-3:15) to fulfill my Fine Art/Humanities elective.  I might change this, but at the moment I have it written down.
Marching band TR 6-8, F 4-6
1 (or 2) free elective(s).  I’m trying to see if Jamie/Patterson/Steven and I can take a class together.

I almost got excited when I read that to get a History minor you only need 5 histories with at most two being below 200, which I’ve already fulfilled (i.e. would need 3 more).  But then I checked the old curriculum book and it says “Only one of these courses may fulfill a General
College perspective requirement.”  Damn, I almost thought I was going to create a paradox and be a History minor.

But here is a list of ALL the “potential” minors I could be and their requirements (i.e. I’ve already taken at least one class from those departments):

• History: 4 more history classes, 1 under 200, 3 over 200.  Must be C or higher in at least four of five classes
• Geology: 101 Lab (I already took 101) plus three Geology class above Geol 111 (which would include labs, more likely than not)
• Physics: Phys 128 with Lab, and any two physics courses number above 200 with Phys 116/117/128 as pre-req. OR ASTR 101 with Lab and two of the following three: ASTR 291, 301, 519
• Math: Math 383 (Differential Equations) and any three math courses chosen from 435 or courses numbered 500 or higher (grade of C or higher in all)
• Geography: Geog 10, 11, or 12 and three more geography classes
• Spanish: Two paths:
• Span 300 (Adv. Grammar/Comp), 3 courses Span 330 and above, 1 allied course on Hispanic World (i.e. Geography of Latin America)
• Span 265 (Spanish for the Professions), Span 320, 321, 323, or 323, Span 335 (US Hispanic Community) and 1 allied course on Hispanic World
• Anthropology: Two Paths:
• Minor in General Anthropology: 4 more Anth classes, one can be below 200, at least one course must come from each of the three Concentrations.  Must be C or higher in at least four of five classes.  Can only use one as General College credit (which I did with Anth 10: General Anthropology).
• Minor in Archeology: A bit more complex, but basically 4 more Anth classes.
• Philosophy: Four more Phil classes, at least one from three of four specific areas of Philosophy, no more than three can be number 199 and below (not counting one I already had below 199)

Now out of the lot of those, the least classes needed (not counting Physics and Geology – they have too many labs) would be History, Geography, Math, Anthropology and Philosophy (eliminating Geology, Physics and Spanish).

Now out of those, I’m going to eliminate Math because of I’ve had too much of it for my own good, and Anthropology because it is a worthless study to me, unless I get to be Dr. Jones and have a whip.

So that leaves History, Geography, and Philosophy.  Four classes in any of them.  All three will require about the same degree of reading/writing.

The pros of a minor: I’ll be diverse in having something other than comp sci or mathematics.  It’ll also look good?

The cons of a minor: There goes all of my free electives.  I would still have my extra 2 free electives, but that puts me back into 5 classes a semester.  It could also hinder taking classes with Patterson/Jamie/Steven if they don’t want to take a history or whatever together.

For the record, I need the following to graduate next year:

• One comp class from Programming Languages Group (Compilers/Program Language Concepts/Software Engineering Lab) (I plan on taking Program Language Concepts, or possibly Soft Eng Lab)
• Any comp class from any distribution group to fulfill 6th comp jr/sr class (Graphics or Operating System will fulfill this).
• One humanities/Fine Arts elective (Music will fulfill this)
• One elective that is Non-CS/STOR/Math
• Four (up to six) free electives.  Not including two more 1 hour credits of band.

So I have lots of thinking to do…

Also: WSS CS grad program.  It doesn’t look too easy either.  And here is UNC’s grad program, by comparison.  I need to keep looking around for more grad programs, if you spot any, pass them my way.

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