Hello, World!

Remember me? I used to write on this blog all the time. I can understand if you don't. As you can see, I haven't written here for over two months!

The excuses are already lined up: between then and now I have written my own shell, my own malloc package, and a proxy. I graded pounds of paper worth of homeworks, lab reports, and exams. I even had my own labs!

In a nut shell (or bash or csh or whatever it is you use), I've been very busy this semester, so I apologize to those of you who check this blog to see if I'm alive. Although if that's the case, then my funeral must have been weeks ago. Shame, I would have sent flowers.

In the next few days, I hope to include some posts with pictures from events earlier this semester. Now that finals are over, I have a little more time on my hands before I head up to Boston to work for Raytheon as a summer intern. In the meantime, please be content with my anticipated schedule for next semester.

And go see Star Trek! Not quite your original series, but it has Zachary Quinto in it, which is a big deal around here (he's a CMU alumnus). That's the first thing I did after finals. It's definitely worth the two hours.

Blog Time

It's hard to find time to blog when you're so busy with mid-semester exams and projects. But when your 15-213 lab is giving you glibc errors, you can't figure out why since you're not even touching memory allocation, and you can't sleep because it's bugging you, it must be time for a blog.

So what's new in Pittsburgh?

CIT Ball went smoothly last weekend. Virtually everyone said that they enjoyed themselves and were pleased with the venue, food and DJ we picked out. People also liked our party favors (flowers for the females, chocolate coins for the males) and they loved our centerpieces (perhaps a little too much...within half an hour of opening the doors most of the masks had been removed from the tables!).

The popular centerpieces.

Carnations...or roses...some people apparently don't know the difference.

My Date and I

Dina, with whom I worked to organize the event.

They seem to be having fun.

This past weekend I attended the SWE Region G conference in Akron, Ohio. I gave a bid presentation to hold the conference at CMU in 2011, but lost to OSU. In all appearances it seemed as though we had done much more planning and preparation for the conference bid; the only thing we forgot were the Buckeyes.

Otherwise, the conference was great. It's good to be back though, because now there's less than a week until Spring Break! And aren't I looking forward to that...

Happy E-Week!

This week is National Engineering Week, the week when we celebrate engineers and engineering, and are thankful for all the things we can enjoy because of engineers (this laptop, for instance, or your car, your toaster, even the fake wood that makes up your desk).

SWE plays a major role in planning E-Week at CMU. We had our kick-off event last Friday with the 3rd annual Mr. Engineering competition. I wasn't there, but I heard that the winner was Mr. Mystery, the freshman entry. His duct tape costume was a very well-made suit.

Last night we had an ice cream social and student project presentations at our Technology Showcase. It was a fun event. We have a bunch of events every day until Friday, which is the night of CIT Ball, the event I've been organizing.

Unfortunately, my professors (even the engineers) take these festivities to mean that we have too much time on our hands. I have an exam in every class in the next two weeks, which means I should be doing a whole lot of studying right now.

On the bright side, the only meal I need to make myself today is lunch: There is free breakfast every day somewhere in celebration of E-week, and I get fed tonight at the 18240 test grading session. Even they have a test!

The Sun Comes out for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Pittsburgh's weather lightened up considerably in time for the Super Bowl on Sunday. After 4+ weeks of snow almost every day, the sky finally cleared and the sun shone to celebrate the event. Too bad the Steelers weren't in Pittsburgh to enjoy it!

Congrats to the Steelers for their title. I thought it was an exciting game. It was nearly as exciting as the burning couches and cars afterwards!

Of course, in light of the Steelers' victory, some people may have forgotten that today is Groundhog Day, and Pennsylvania's favorite rodent has decided that the beautiful weather will only last for the game. After this weekend, we should expect more snow. Only 6 more weeks of winter...