August

Date: 2002-05-15 16:48:50

Yesterday afternoon I realized there was no real way that I was going to be able to finish my senior project in time to present it next Tuesday morning. I'm close -- I have plenty of pieces, but not enough to actually put them together and prove that there's actually something there. I could do something akin to the anemic presentation I witnessed yesterday morning, but I wanted to do a little more, something to actually prove that I did something useful, which someone could build upon. I talked to Stirling, my friendly project advisor, and then to Dr. Wood, the dean of the school of engineering, and we concluded that I'll present sometime this summer. This means I won't technically get my diploma until summer graduation in August, but I can at least march and otherwise participate in June graduation activities. Possibly not the best solution, but I think it's an acceptable tradeoff.

As a result, my summer is in even more flux than it was before. I have no real idea what else I'm doing this summer. One probable scenario is to stick around in College Place immediately after graduation (which I already plan to do for Ted Swinyar's wedding) and finish my project, occasionally wandering over to Longview to deal with some wedding stuff. (I'd like input in the cake and tuxedos phases of the preparations.) I'd like to go backpacking in Olympic National Park (specifically, Sul Duc valley, on the northwest side of the park), which will likely take place after I finish my project. Dr. Wood will be gone from shortly after graduation until the beginning of July, and I can't present without him (or someone to take his place and organize), which will take some thinking about. (One possible solution is to head back to Boulder after I finish the project and wander by College Place in late July on my way to Longview for 04 August.)

Mom's presence in College Place thwarted my ability to go to the local cinema house to acquire midnight Episode II tickets. (I've finally gotten to the point where I think the new Star Wars movie is Episode II, not Episode I.) I arranged for the previously-mentioned other Ted to acquire tickets on my behalf, but he was thwarted because they would sell only two tickets to a single person. I intended to wander over to the theater to acquire my own but didn't make it until Tuesday night, at which point I was informed that they were sold out for the all-sacred midnight showing. I investigated alternate options and eventually (this afternoon, while I was sitting in the Sun lab trying to figure out how to create an edge-triggered D flip-flop) engaged in an e-mail bidding war to get one ticket. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much money I agreed exchange for one sacred midnight ticket. Here's hoping it'll be worth it.