Yesterday's Progress
Reportlab EPS:
Got a sample EPS file from Illustrator 8. Lots of complexities there. I also got a version of a PDF from that file. On the TODO list: Take apart that PDF and figure out how they are doing their gradient fill.

Filk Database:
Continuing progress. The user interface is starting to come together. I really like what can be done with AJAX & GWT. My plan is to have an app which can be distributed as a zip file and will run on any (at least linux, mac, windows) platform without changes.

Wild Mercy Marcon 2008:
I spent a few hours yesterday removing feedback. For other Audition users (hms42), view the files in spectral view. Feedback is clearly visible in the spectral view. You can either draw a rectangle around it and delete it or draw a rectangle around it and use that as a definition of noise for noise reduction.

The nature of the feedback was kind of odd: I was getting it through the direct out from Jen's harp. There are many other mics that I would have thought of as better candidates for feedback.

Yay progress! Hopefully more today.

Current Mood: productive

(Comment on this)

Things to do...
Wow, is he really posting?

In an effort to get some things completed, I've decided to document what I'm currently working on.  My goal is to get progress done on at least one of these items every day.  Hopefully status reports will follow on what I have done towards these goals.

Recording projects:

Wild Mercy at Marcon 2008
I need to do a whole-concert mix of Wild Mercy's Marcon concert.  This is at the top of my queue, recording-wise.  All of Wild Mercy (and especially their videographer) could use this completed.  Other things have cropped up, but I just need to finish this.

OVFF 2008
I've only done a few mixdowns from OVFF so far.  I've been working withhms42  to coordinate some of the audio work.  I'm probably not going to do too much on this until I get my filk database up and running.

Everything else
So many conventions that I have recordings for.  I really want to have something for sale by next OVFF (or before)

Programming Projects:

EPS for Reportlab
I started this as a proposal for the Google Summer of Code.  Recently, I refactored most of this and have something close to an alpha release.  Someone of the reportlab list posted a request for this today so I'll see about throwing a few cycles at this.

Filk Database
I need to get my filk recording database up and running.  A few people have seen what I did for OVFF last year.  That was fairly good for what it was, but was starting to show stretch marks.  I've been playing with some AJAX stuff based on the Googe Web Toolkit.  It's time to get some traction done on that project.

These are the big items in my queue right now.

Hopefully status updates to follow....

(2 Comments |Comment on this)

Done, done, done
Last friday was graduation. As class valedictorian, I presented the class remarks to the crowd. I was quite happy with the way the speech was received. One of the members of the board of directors of the school told me that it was the best student speech she had heard in 20 graduations. I had people from the audience come up to me and tell me it was a good speech. For those interested, the speech can be found here.

Now, the job hunt begins. I should have been doing that last quarter, but the 22 credits I took last quarter left me no time.

I'm having a graduation party/housefilk next saturday. Details available on rms_butterfly's LJ.

(7 Comments |Comment on this)

Comes up for air
Taking a break to come up for air from a very busy quarter at school.

The end is in sight, however. And I just had one of my instructors give me an A and say I don't need to come back to class. That helps take some of the load off.

And I was just asked (and accepted) to give the class remarks at graduation. Yay, a speech. Seems that 4.0 GPA is worth something.

Also, rumor has it that a graduation party is being planned.

It's a bit scarey not knowing what will happen job-wise after school is done. The last two years have been predictable. Now I don't know what will happen after the next 5 weeks.

(4 Comments |Comment on this)

Squeak
I just finished up my next-to-last quarter of school. I managed to squeak by with a 4.0 again, but that was up in the air until the grades actually posted. This was my hardest load so far at 23 credit hours. It nearly kicked my ass. My stress levels were higher than I like throughout the quarter. But this leaves just ONE QUARTER LEFT!!!!!!

This coming quarter will be tougher than the last (shudder). Last quarer, I had 23 credits, but 10 of those were easy ones (COBOL - a joke, and Statistics - math class, easy fo me).
Upcoming: (22 Credits, but no fluff)
2 Capstone classes in two different departments (Purchasing & Programming)
Systems Analysis (whee, group projects)
International shipping
Human Resources

Add to this, beginning the job hunt in earnest.
This quarter is just gonna suuuuuuuck.
But I still have a 4.0 GPA (and that looks really good on a resume)

I will make it to FKO, though we need to leave out fairly early on Sunday to make it back for my 9AM Monday class.

I'll probably be fried at Marcon, but I'll be there running sound.

I haven't touched any recordings since before Christmas and probaly won't until after graduation. (sigh)

Current Mood: tired

(4 Comments |Comment on this)

Scholarship
I got home tonight, checked the (snail) mail and found a letter from financial aid. I was awarded a $1500 scholarship for this next school year.

Woo and Hoo

Current Mood: accomplished

(4 Comments |Comment on this)

Tape archive
I've been working on a project to convert my archive of raw filk recordings from the 8-track DTRS masters to a much more usable hard disk format.

I just copied the last tape.

77 tapes

1232 track hours

Finally done

time to sleep now....

(10 Comments |Comment on this)

Update
I just finished up my last final of the quarter. All my grades haven't posted yet, but I expect another straight A quarter. That's not the most exciting thing, though.

After taking my final in Inventory Management yesterday, my instructor asked for my contact information because he wanted my assistance in writing a new Inventory textbook. He hates the one that he inherited (the one we used in this class) and is planning to write one of his own. He mostly wants help writing examples and problem questions, and a good instructor's manual. He's also willing to list me as co-author of the book. I have to say that that would make a really nice bullet point on a resume. Might even end up making a little money off the thing, but I'm not counting on that.

My instructor was also willing to help with a project I want to do. I've been fascinated with the concept of genetic algorithms and want to try a project using them to work on a standard warehouse problem. My goal, in addition to getting to play with GA, is to write and publish an article on the use of GA to solve logistics problems and get it published in a trade magazine. Another thing that would look great on my resume.

(3 Comments |Comment on this)

School Idiocy
The curriculum at school is changing as of this fall. My major (Enterprise Developer) is going away (effectively it has already) and the other developer degree (Object-Oriented Developer) is changing to simply "Software Developer". Since it's time to register for classes for summer and I don't want to take any classes which won't apply to the changed major I went to campus yesterday to try to get a copy of the new plan of study. I went to the department secretary and asked who I should speak to. She asked who my faculty adviser was. I told her and she told me that he was in the office and I should speak with him. I verifies with the secretary that he would have that information and she said that since he was an adviser, he would have that information.

So, I walk down the hall, and talk with the person who is supposed to be my adviser. I explain the problem. He needs to walk down the hall to pull a plan of study off the wall, the one that will be out of date come fall. He makes a few meager suggestions. I ask about the new schedule, he says "I don't even know that myself". I thank him for his time and leave. I walk down the hall and talk with an adviser that I think might know more about the proposed schedule based on an overheard conversation. I ask about the new schedule, so she goes to a network drive, opens a file there called something like "Proposed 2006 Developer Plan.doc" and prints me off a copy. With this, I can actually make reasonable decisions about my summer schedule.

Today, my Visual Basic instructor emails me about a problem with my lab. It's a simple CD inventory database. He writes:

"On Report, by Artist, I put in Nick Robertson and it told me there were 5 CD's by him. But there were only 2. Please fix and resubmit. Thanks."

My response:

"When I check, there are 5 CDs by Nick Robertson:
2 Copies of "All that Jazz" and 3 copies of "Alone in New Orleans"

Did I misunderstand the problem?
Did you only want the number of copies of the first one found by that artist?
"
which seems a more polite response than saying "You're an idiot"

(6 Comments |Comment on this)

Found on Tape
Tonight's Batch

T007:
Open Filk from OVFF 2002 includes:
3 Weird Sisters
Bill Sutton
Joe Ellis
Boogie Knights
Ookla
Renee Alper
Steve Macdonald

T008:
From Marcon 2002:
Judith Hayman Concert

T009:
From OVFF 2002 Sunday:
Songwriting Contest
Dead Dog Jam

T010:
From OVFF 2002 Sat Concerts:
Boogie Knights Concert (Partial)
Andrea Dale/Graham Leathers Concert
3 X One Shots
Joe Ellis Concert (Partial)

(Comment on this)

Found on Tape
Found on Tape today:

T005: Diana and Shelby's concert from Marcon 2002
T006: Robin Nakula's concert from Marcon 2002

(Comment on this)

Found on Tape
I'm working on a project to convert my backlog of raw convention recordings from Tascam format tapes onto hard disk so that I can more easily work with them. As I go through them, I'll post what I find. Comments welcome and may influence what gets produced first.

Today:
Tom Smith concert from Marcon 2002
Zander Nyrond concert from Marcon 2002

Last Week:
OVFF 2002? - This has a recording of (I believe the first) Lady Mondegreen one shot
OVFF 2002? (Joe Ellis was toast anybody know what year for sure?) 2-fers from Frank Parker, Yu & Katie, and Susan Urban. Also a recording of the Whose Line is it Anyway panel.

(5 Comments |Comment on this)

Another quarter down
I just finished up my last final for the quarter. All the grades have not posted yet, but unless something goes horribly wrong, it's another 4.0 this quarter.

Next quarter will be light on the classes, but I expect to test out of one of the required classes and get at least one certification out of the way.

(2 Comments |Comment on this)

Misc Update
Happy Birthday to bastardcat

Classes are going well, I'm at the top of most of my classes.
Now a member of the honor society.
I'm an officer of the new campus sci-fi/fantast/gaming club.
Still making (slow) progress on a Marcon CD.

*hugs* all

(2 Comments |Comment on this)

Honors and Certification Question
Fuzzyvanman, now a Phi Theta Kappa member.

A couple days ago, I actually found the invitation letter that they sent me last December. I stopped into the chapter office today, filled out the application and paid the dues (now a member for life).

I'm hoping that this will help for the next round of scholorships as well as being a nice resume item.

I'm also looking at taking an Oracle certification. Two tests for the Associate level certification and an extra test for the Professional level one. I might do this instead of the Visual Basic cert that I was planning or in addition to it.

Any thoughts on whether the Oracle cert would be useful for my career goals?

(2 Comments |Comment on this)

A bit of levity for the day
Today in my Business Communication class I had a research paper due. I finished that around midnight last night. I don't expect any problems with that paper.

But after I finished that paper, I started on the speech that I needed to give in the same class today. Everyone in the class needed to give a 3 minute speech in support of a real or imaginary charity. I was near the end, so there were 18 people ahead of me, and everyone did a serious speech supporting for example, American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, American Red Cross, local animal shelter, etc....

By the time I gave my speech, the mood in the room was way down (think 18 songs into an Ose filk). I think I saw some people looking at the window as a way out. It made me glad that I ( decided to have a little fun with itCollapse )

It could have been better, as I waited until the last minute so it was in my opinion a lot weaker than it could have been. And I know that it was short on time.

As the grade on this speech depended only on participation (10 points if you gave a speech) I wasn't too woried about polish on it, though I had enough trouble with it that I need to put more time into the next one.

At the end of class, everyone voted for their favorite speech, the winner getting 5 extra credit points.

I won! Woo Hoo - Go me!

It was even planned: I specifically picked a light topic in an effort to get the class vote.

This gives me a +5 in that class (5 points better than perfect for the class)

Current Mood: bouncy

(3 Comments |Comment on this)

School 4.0
No, not a new software package.
It's my GPA. Woo Hoo!!

I was sweating the grade in my System Analysis class a little bit, but I managed to get the A in there. All my other classes were easy, I got perfect or better in all of them.

Setting myself up to apply for scholarships in the spring.

Other educational goals for next year include some kind of Microsoft certification (right now I'm thinking about the MCAD in VB) as well as a Six Sigma green belt cert.

Next quarter is C++ 2, Visual Basic I, Transportation & Traffic Management, and Purchasing 2. Two of those will be online classes.

Vacation is going great. Nice relaxing day.

(5 Comments |Comment on this)

I love shopping for textbooks online
A transportation class I'm taking next quarter has the following textbook:

Contemporary Transportation, Fifth Edition, by Donald Wood

Campus Bookstore: (New $115.85 or Used $86.90) + tax (though both new and used are currently out of stock)

Amazon Marketplace: $3.89 + $3.49 shipping = $7.38

I ordered it 5 days ago, got it today. Used, and a little worn, but fine for what I need.

Gotta love $7.38 college textbooks :)

Oh, and the 4 other textbooks that I need for next quarter are either ones that I already own, or have borrowed from a friend who has already taken the class. Total textbook bill for next quarter is $7.38. Woo Hoo

(2 Comments |Comment on this)

Today's WTF moment is brought to you by the letter C++
I just have to share this one.

I go to my C++ class today. The class is supposed to run from 1:00 - 5:30. I arrive and start working on my next lab at about 12:30.
1:15....1:30.... Still no instructor. Check email and the online announcements. Nothing.

2:30.... only three people left in the classroom. Instructor walks in. Says he went to the wrong room. We'll just have lab time today, no lecture.

??!!?!?!??! WTF ???!!!???

An hour and a half!??

I could see going to the wrong room. But one would think that at some point he would notice that NONE of his students were in the class. Did he actually give the lecture to the other room? Did he wait for an hour and a half for one of his students to show up? WTF?

On a related note, I'd appreciate comments on the following ( dilemmaCollapse )

(6 Comments |Comment on this)

YAWN
Well, I've seen all my fall classes now... Yawn.

I have three in-person classes:

Accounting 107 - The second in the intro to accounting series.
The instructor seems pretty laid back and nice. No lecture today. The pace of this class is much slower than 106, which really MOVED. I came home and easily finished the demo problem and homework for the first chapter (due next Thurs). Shutup and take the easy A.

C++ Programming 1
The latest in a series of computer classes where I don't learn anything. Technically that's not true. I expect to learn the syntax of how C++ does Object Oriented Programming. I finished the first lab during the lecture today. Whee. Shutup and take the easy A.

Systems Analysis and Design
This one I might actually learn something in. It's all theory of computer project design. Largely ignored in the real world, but I don't object to learning the thoery. Down side - Group Projects. I'm thinking about trying to be the group leader of our (4-5 person) group. Nobody else in the group seems to care much about getting the projects done, but we haven't really met together (that was put off for next week, by the group)

and I have one web class:

Purchasing Principles I
I'm looking forward to learning this stuff, but I'd really like a more hands-on approach. It seems to be: "Read the book, there will be an online quiz next week". Maybe that's standard in a web class. It would be nice to actually have the instructor teach something, though. I'd take it as an in-person class but it's not offered as such. This one is a wildcard. I don't have a good feel for the class. I have an email pending to the instructor with questions.

(1 Comment |Comment on this)