A picture of the snow fence was used on the CMU winter break resources website. Too bad it didn't make the Tartan, but this is still cool.

The BVW show went very well. First year that there was no worlds that crashed. Only took 6 years to get here. Making tapes this time was much worse than the past 2 times. This time, because the show was after classes, we had to make special arrangements to have the class meet to get the tapes and do the end of semester wrap up stuff. Unfortunately it was on Wednesday, the next day. I barely had enough tapes made, which involved me going back to Stage3 during the meeting to get the last batch for the class minus 2. This was after staying at Stage3 all night to make them and missing a party (which I didn't even know about). Things eventually turned out ok and I was able to have fun the following day.

Grades

Finals went pretty well. I must have done pretty well on all of them based on the grades I got. B in OS, A in Intro to Intelligence, and the highest grade in the class in Computer Engineering, pretty sweet. I also think I was the first one to leave that final. Makes me wish that I'd worked a little harder in OS, because I don't think it would have been that much harder for me to get an A, giving me the 4.0 I've never had, and this would have been an impressive semester to get it in, what with BVW and all. It was funny, on the last day of class, when we were filling out faculty/course evaluations, Kesden mentioned how they like getting feedback because OS was probably one of the most time consuming classes for both students and staff, besides BVW. That made me laugh because I was involved with both in one semester, although on different sides of the fence. It would have seemed completely ridiculous to me to take both in the same semester, I don't know how I thought this was better, but it worked out ok in the end.

Grad School

My application for graduate work at the MIT media lab was due right after class but before finals. I got the application finished, wrote several revisions of a statement of purpose, and then came the difficult part. I decided that while not necessarily required, a portfolio might better show off who I am and what I can do. In less than one day, I had to put this together. The format I decided upon was a webpage on CD. Webpages are something I know how to put together and make look decent pretty easily. I put it on CD because it included some MPEG videos of my work that were rather large, and I wouldn't want to force someone to download. I had registered movis.net a while back because I liked the name movis, something I came up with while working at my old job, and decided it ought to be a resume/professional site, as opposed to this personal one. You can see what went on the CD there. I stole the design from monzy.org, Monzy's professional site. My portfolio site had explainations of several projects that I've worked on that I have accompanying pictures or video for. Some of the videos are quite cool. I was glad I had to do this for MIT, because it will be much easier to update now that I have it created, and I've wanted this for a while. It even forced me to get around to creating a video of the Batman game. I can't wait to hear back from MIT. I seriously have no idea what my chances of getting in are. Although, when I get in, the comes the internal battle where I have to figure out where to go. I'd at least like to know where I'm going to be next year. It is difficult being so unsure of my future.

Relaxing, or not

The last few days in Pittsburgh were great. I didn't do much, and there weren't that many people around, but Steve and I watched quite a bit of Smallville, almost completely caught up. It was nice to be done with nothing to do.

Of course, then I went home. While at home I visited Monzy at the Media Lab. That was very cool, getting to see what they are working on there, and what sort of environment I might be in next year. Time spent at home was mostly spent reading, watching TV/movies, or playing video games. Not enough of it was spent sleeping. I was both forced to wake up and frowned upon for staying up late. It always seemed that you couldn't be quiet enough in that house to not get someone upset. Also, it was always cold.

Some exchanging of gifts, whether it be for Christmas, or a Hanukah that came too early for anyone to be ready for (while I was home), took place. I wasn't sure what I was going to get since I didn't ask for any besides a wallet. In fact I explicitly asked for nothing. I have moved beyond a material stage where I just want things for the sake of getting stuff. When there is something that I want badly enough, I go out and get it, otherwise, it isn't really worth it. In the end, the biggest gift I received was the wallet I asked for, and it came full of twenties. Perfect. Along with that I got some clothes, the Lord of the Rings Collectors Edition, and some other small things.

We spent some nice time together as a family. Eventually everyone left except for me. My mom and I saw the Two Towers, which was good (both the activity and the movie itself). It was a relaxing weekend. I was happy to spend some time with Missy, over break. She's really getting big and trying very hard to talk, though not succeeding.

On Sunday I flew to New York where I am staying with my Dad. It is nice spending a few days here. Allison is also here and we have been hanging out. I get worried when she says something will be fun, because we have very different idea of what we enjoy, that I'm not sure she quite understands. I think that may be my fault since I try to be very accomodating, and like to try to enjoy stuff that I might never do by choice. I feel that I need to act "more grown up" or may just more "cool", but either way, I somehow feel that I am an inferior example of someone my age than she or her friends are, and so I need to bolster myself around them. I should probably realize that I'm just different, and it isn't worse, in fact maybe better. I need to live my life the way I feel is right and if I enjoy it, anyone who doesn't understand that can deal with their own problem. Either way, I'm going with her and others to a New Years Eve party at some club where a friend of her's is playing. Steve is coming along so that I won't be the other nerd there and we can remedy our "we're so stupid!" situation.

That's it for now, and surely enough. Have a happy new year. In the next year I have to look forward to: an easy semester, booth, Alice complete, graduation, and the unknown beyond. As for resolutions, it is to have something to be thankful for next Thanksgiving. This year, I didn't have anything to be thankful for other than the usual stuff, health, family, etc, which I don't mean to take for granted, but still... All that makes it a good year as opposed to a bad one, but not really anything new, any improvement. At a time in my life where there are so many things I'm not happy with (or maybe just a few that I'm strongly not happy about), it feels like it was a wasted opportunity to turn things around. So for next year, not that saying it now will be any better than wishing for years, the one thing I always wish for.