Chris' Updates

Check these out! Courtesy of Munchkin, thanks friend!

I forgot to mention a couple of other interesting notes concerning graduation and the like. The most exciting news is that I've transferred out of active drilling status in the Army Reserve and into the Individual Ready Reserve, otherwise known as inactive reserve. That mean's I'm essentially out of the Army; they can still call me up if I'm needed, but the circumstances would have to be extraordinary. I don't have to go to monthly drills, I just go for a once-a-year "muster" to make sure I'm still alive. I have to say, it's bittersweet leaving the Army. I really enjoy doing my job there, and I enjoy the camaraderie. If I were keeping myself in better shape and moving forward in my military career, I would have a strong reason to stay. But on the other hand, it's really the right thing for me right now. My entire life is changing; I'm moving from primarily being a student to the working world. My situation in the Army was also supposed to...

Apologies for the late post, but I've been a madman up until last week. After spring break, I had to kick all three of my class projects into high gear. In senior project, I had been spinning my wheels on a particular problem, and finally called in our Google sponsor, Scott, to help me out. We and the rest of the team had a couple of late-night hackathon sessions, and really made some huge progress. After Scott showed me how to incorporate my own PaintWeb tools the right way and started me on a selection system, I was able to make some nice enhancements to our 2D canvas and toolset. In the end, we handed off a senior project that I'm proud to put my name on, and proud that AgentSheets will carry forward. In Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, our group wrapped up our design and did our three week-long iterations of development, and ended up with a decent proof-of-concept; an Android app for managing chores, along with a RESTful web service backend. We had planned a lot...

School is in full tilt, with no sign of letting up through Spring Break. In senior project, we're now into what we software engineers call "Release Mode." We're coming up to The Big Deadline, and we're churning out code and documentation as quickly as we can. We have a number of big features in Volumizer that are still not quite the way we want, but we don't have time to really do all of them justice. It's not for lack of trying, mind you; I don't function as well without sleep as some of my fellow students, but I haven't been getting my full, comfy 8 hours a night for the past couple of weeks either. I get up, start working on this or that project, maybe go to class, program more, and roll into bed. There's just too little time left to make any more huge changes. We tested with users, found our weak spots, and we'd be golden with two or three months more. But that's the breaks, I guess. Software has one distinct similarity to fine ar...

I'm finally into my last semester at CU. I've been working toward my BS in Computer Science for a total of six and a half years now, and I will finally have my piece of paper in a couple of months. It's a great feeling to be this close, and yet somehow I've avoided catching Senioritis, that contagious feeling of apathy that sometimes hits high school and college students towards the end of their studies. I think the things that are really keeping me grounded are a) our senior project, which has been interesting and challenging, and b) the fact that I have a job waiting for me. My team's senior project, Volumizer , has seen some fairly major progress in the last two months. We've swapped out our rudimentary, homebrew 2D canvas for an open source solution called PaintWeb , and that gives us a lot more tools and functionality. The downside is that trying to interface with PaintWeb is a little difficult for what we're trying to do with it. It's very tightl...

My most exciting news to report is that I've received and accepted a job offer at Northrop Grumman! I've been interviewing pretty hard for the last couple of months, and Northrop Grumman gave me a great offer on a great-looking job. Once I graduate from CU next May, I'll start working in their Information Systems division, writing, maintaining and supporting software for national defense systems. I don't know exactly what the job will entail and what sort of systems I'll be working on because the details are classified (and even if I knew I wouldn't broadcast them here), but one of the engineers interviewing me assured me that "it's just data." I'm really glad that the interviewing process is done for now, that I know what I'm doing after I graduate, and that I have a great job at a great company waiting for me! Now all I have to do is graduate. I'm not expecting that to be really difficult, but I do have to keep working at a steady p...

Perhaps its time to change the title of my blog once again; it started out as Chris' Almost-Daily Updates, has now moved to Chris' Weekly Updates, and is probably more accurately described now as Chris' Monthly Updates. But I digress. I've officially gotten back into my busy mode of living. I'm constantly switching tasks, but only occasionally do those tasks include taking the dog for a walk or to the dog park, or playing computer games, or cleaning the house. Mostly my time is being occupied by homework and job searching. Homework this semester has taken the rhythm of focusing on one project for one class for a few days solid, turning that in, then focusing on something different. It's a little hectic doing this because it constantly feels like I'm working on things at the last minute. I'm probably still spending an appropriate amount of time on each assignment, but its always close to the deadline. Senior project has been going well so far; I reall...

It's official, senior project has begun. The professor, Bruce Sanders, just finalized teams and projects. It's been a bit of a bumpy ride for me, getting through this process. Two weeks ago, I thought I had everything laid out. I had a project lined up, working for the startup that I interviewed with over the summer, with the other student they had considered hiring, plus whoever we could find for our team of 4 to 5. Unfortunately, at the last minute, we gained too many people for the team. Our extras just happened to be all of her friends. I guess the kind way of saying it is that she found people that she knew she could work with. The unkind way of saying it is that even though we were basically equals, she still decided she had the authority to kick me off in favor of her friends. It's too bad, because I was really looking forward to that project. But the good news is that I think I've a good team and project. I'll be working with one guy I've worked with b...

I've purchased my books, packed my pencils, and updated my Ubuntu software. It's time to head back to school again, for what should be my last fall semester, at least for a while. I should be graduating in May, and I don't plan to go back and earn my Master's degree immediately. For the next few months, I'll be working on computer science senior project, network systems, statistics, and just for fun (and to fulfill natural science requirements), astronomy. I'm really looking forward to senior project. It's a chance to finally work on a substantial piece of software, not just little toy examples and homework assignments that get tossed away after a week. I've had friends go through senior project before, and a couple of them suggested that doing a thesis instead would be less of a pain. While I value their warning, and believe that it probably would be less annoying to do a thesis on my own, I can't help but think that the project is going to be val...

Last Thursday was my last day of class for the summer, and I'm glad to be finished with this Matrix Methods and Applications class. I was really looking forward to the applications, but it turned out to be all methods. Once again, I've learned a lot of math techniques and I'm left with no idea when they're useful. Brilliant. I don't have my grade back, but I'm pretty sure I passed at least. A couple of weeks ago, Ashley and I and some friends took a camping trip up to Kelly Dahl campground near Nederland. We did a lot of catching up, and a little hiking and geocaching. You can check out our photos on Picasa . We took Apollo, and he had a blast. It was great to get outdoors and remember that I can tear myself away from computers when I need to. I spend a lot of my time using my computers. Even when I go out around town, I have my G1, which has more processing power than our family's first computer, and constantly keeps me connected to the internet. When I...

Once again, I've neglected posting for a while, but I've certainly been busy. The end of the spring semester was hectic as usual, but I feel pretty good about my performance. I was able to scrape decent grades in 4 classes, but unfortunately I couldn't keep up in my probability class and failed it. That seems to be the norm when I take math classes; so far, I've had to take every college math class twice in order to pass. It's not great, but I'll manage. In fact, that probability class is not required for my Computer Science major, only the Applied Math minor I'm going to try and scrape out. After the end of the spring semester, I took some time to visit with family and friends. I wasn't able to find an internship immediately, but that's not such a bad thing. I think I should try to enjoy what should be my last summer before I enter the workforce full time. After a couple weeks of relaxing, I started back at school for summer classes. I initially...

It's been over a month since my last update, so I suppose it's time. We're about half-way through the semester at school, and I'm staying afloat for the most part. I do need to spend more time concentrating on my probability class, but everything else seems to be going well. I've been pushing harder on my physical fitness in the last couple of weeks; I'm actually getting to the gym, and I'm spending some quality time while I'm there. I've hired a personal trainer, and she's been helping to get me in the weight room. On my own, I've been focusing on improving my cardiovascular fitness and endurance while running, as well as trying to burn off a few pounds. When I got home last June, I was just below my Army-mandated maximum weight, but I've gained about 20 lbs. since then. In other news, our friend Chris is having serious medical issues. He's been in and out of the hospital in the past few weeks. He's going through some pretty ser...

I've made it through the first week of this spring semester, and I'm no worse for the wear. I'm really enjoying my classes so far. I'm taking the second semester of Humanities for Engineers, which is going to be divided into two "landscapes" for the semester. For the first part, we'll be covering some of the classics: the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aneid. That should be interesting. The math class I'm taking is probability. The professor's accent is very thick Asian, but he's a great teacher, and I think I'll enjoy the class. I have three computer science courses. The class on game programming will be much less pure entertainment than it sounds like; it's focused on designing and prototyping educational games. We're using a program called AgentSheets to do our games, and it's pretty awful to install and limited in it's uses. However, it is good for getting something working quickly, and it's simple enough that anyone ca...

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy New Year! This year has been one to remember, for certain. I spent Christmas Eve last year in Iraq, being accepted into the Catholic church. Since then, I've seen another great friend get married while I was on leave, then came back home for good! I've furthered my education at CU, and scraped a 2.8 out of 4 GPA for this semester, my best grades at that school yet. I sadly said goodbye to Grandpa Doug, but have made many good friends in unexpected places. Looking forward, the time is quickly approaching for me to decide my future with the Army Reserves. I go wildly back and forth, from "I can't possibly re-up," to "I must stay." There are compelling reasons on both sides of the argument. I have made one decision, though; if I do stay in the Army, I will eventually pursue becoming a Warrant Officer of the Signal Corps. This office is little known to many outside the military, but basically Warrant...

I've just finished my final essay for Humanities for Engineers, check it out! Frankenstein in Jurassic Park That's the last of my assignments, but I have one more exam tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

It's finals season once again, and that means I'm ramping up my homework production. I have four papers and a project to turn in, plus two exams, over the course of the next few days. But the end is in sight! If you've been able to follow my new Twitter account , you heard the good news that I was offered an internship with the Acxiom Corporation, and also the bad news that the project I was to work on was shut down, from what I can tell. So, I have a little more confidence that I'm somebody worth hiring, but I'm still back to unemployed. I'm pretty disappointed, because they offered me a better wage than they even advertised on the posting. They advertised $12-15/hr, and offered me $17.50, so apparently they were very interested in me. Other than that, we're gearing up for Christmas and the holidays. Ashley has been selling her birdseed heating bags at craft sales and has done quite well. Hopefully tonight, well take a little time and put up the Christmas t...

It has been a very busy few weeks since I last wrote, but I'll mention a few of the big events. First, I'm sad to report that my Grandpa Doug passed away yesterday. He fell ill a few weeks ago, and went to a hospital. A CAT scan showed a mass in his lungs that was likely cancerous, but he declined to have it biopsied. If it were cancer, the act of surgically getting a sample would likely have sped the cancer's growth. Instead, Grandpa decided to let nature take its course, and come what may. He passed away peacefully in the hospital, and is out of his pain now. He was a Vietnam veteran, and was never ashamed of who he was, never let people's opinions define his self-worth. He will be missed. In other news, I've left my job with Transportation Services to try and find more fertile ground. TS has always been good to me, but many things contributed to my decision to leave. I was getting tired of working odd hours, early mornings, late evenings, starting and ending in d...

Last week was a small break from the rapid pace I was keeping up. I worked little more than my permanent hours, but had a couple of midterm exams and assignments. The midterm for my database class was interesting; it was the first item we've turned in to be graded or assessed in any way. Many people felt that they weren't comfortable at all, because they didn't know what to expect, or what sort of material might show up. I tend to agree that some homework would have been useful, but I thought the test was pretty straightforward. Then again, I haven't gotten a grade back, so maybe I just grossly misunderstood. I took the second midterm for my differential equations class tonight, and I know I didn't do spectacular, but I think I did okay. In the humanities class, we're starting a pretty focused study of Epictetus' Enchiridion and Stoic philosophy. The Stoics believe that to be happiest and most in harmony with nature, a person should basically view events in...

Obviously, I've fallen behind my goal of weekly posts. All I can say is that I've been busy. School work is steaming ahead at full speed, and work has just been crazy. In the past weeks, I've taken and passed my differential equations midterm, and had numerous homework assignments in all of my classes. I just finished a project for differential equations, and wrote it within Google Docs . I've been using Docs for a while to take notes and write small spreadsheets, but recent feature additions allowed me to write a report worthy of printing and turning in. You can check it out here . Since this was for a math class, being able to insert an equation with LaTeX syntax and having it print nicely was invaluable. And I really love that I can access these documents from any computer, and don't have to carry it around on a USB drive or manually synchronize with an internet file system every time I make a change. I still hesitate to put everything in the clouds , but it wor...

Life has been going well, but I find myself very busy once again. Classes are starting to settle in to their norm. Homework is a continuous thing, but I'm trying to be consistent about doing it whenever I have a few moments, and staying ahead of my deadlines. In my differential equations class, I've been doing my best to read over the book before lectures and mostly teaching myself, which has been a huge improvement over what I've done in past semesters, trying to learn for the first time during lecture. My humanities class is going quite well, and I'm enjoying the material. Our first block of discussion was over the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , his first autobiography, and more generally about freedom of body and mind, and slavery's effect on society. Now we're moving on to discussions of the Greek philosophers. Currently we're focused on Socrates, and what a jerk he was. In addition to being remembered for his deep, critical thinking on ph...