It’s been a slow month for blogging, what with exams and all. But all is done now; I’m more convinced than ever that engineering school is less about academics, and more about proving yourself against outrageous expectations and under extreme stress.

That said, I don’t think I’ll ever forget how to set up a band pass filter or a summing amplifier.

Looking ahead, I treated myself to a new camera, and I plan to post lots of pictures from NYC. I thought I’d also publish my fledgling list of stuff to do while there:

Suggestions welcome.

My room is the cleanest it’s been in months. The dishes are washed, and the counter is wiped. This morning I had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and last night I baked fresh bread. Now there’s a delicious-smelling pot roast on the counter that’ll be ready in a few hours.

It is officially exam time. Can you tell?

They say Engineering school is hard. But there’s a point at which you simply become numbed to it… when 78 of 99 students get a midterm mark below 50%, it’s not hard to start fantasizing about a long and successful career as a line worker screwing lids on toothpaste tubes.

And apologies to arts majors for the image. We think it’s funny. (They think it’s funny at UBC, too…)

It’s a verb, a noun, an adjective and nothing if not an enigmatic company; the greatest place for a hacker to work, a pattern for the future, and more romantically, a cathedral awaiting Alan Turing’s soul. In January, I’ll be heading to NYC for a few months of working with the Google Maps Team—it’s hard not to be a little excited.

Once again it is that my life has taken a bizarre and unpredictable turn. Surprise is the flavour that keeps one anchored in the present; I have no complaints.

Around the end of the summer, I titled a post “Five Resolutions” and began drafting some pledges for the upcoming school term. Looking at it now, I realise that there were only ever three, and I’ve really just kept the easiest one of them.

What’s to say? It’s back to school: studying, cooking, hanging out, cycling, and dancing, but less of each than I feel like I’d like. It’s not that I’m wasting huge tracts of time either; there’s simply a lot going on.

One of the byproducts of being busy is that it seems to make the mind a fertile breeding ground. It’s frustrating to feel full of interesting notions and project ideas when I have the least amount of time to explore them.

These days are just packed.

Exam time means study time. Study time means not enough time. And this, of course, means streamlining.

Obvious targets are tasks that can be eliminated altogether. The justification which allows fast food to replace real food becomes more muddled, and can even extend as far more bizarre substitutions. For example, the purchase of new clothes to save that hour and a half spent on laundry. (Possibly a guy-only savings; apparently some females find clothes shopping to be a veritable black hole of time consumption.)

But besides killing chores, what about the necessary recreation? Man cannot live on studying alone… What kinds of relaxation activities give the highest degree of relaxation per unit of time invested? Read on…

Typically, there are two reasons for a blogger to go on temporary hiatus:

1. Extreme busy-ness, or
2. Writing a book.

uwMike will fall silent until May, and actually, it’s for both reasons. I look at my drafts folder, and there’s a half-dozen partially written articles, but I just can’t afford the time to fix them up. Writing is very much an enjoyable experience, but I need my attention elsewhere in the coming weeks.

April is exam month.

Oh, and yeah, I’m writing a book. With Jeff and Cam from We-Create; my employer for two workterms.

My room is a mess. It’s a disaster. Clothes on the chairs, on the shelves and on the floor; Lego on the floor and on the desk; papers piled up on the table, and even an ice cream dish perched on the monitor.

This, however, is atypical.

I’m not a neat freak, but it’s my pattern to be within 30-45 minutes of “very clean.”

So here’s my reasoning about the current state of affairs. Read on…

I’ve unsubscribed from Slashdot, in favour of Reddit.

To the casual reader, Reddit is a page of interesting links. To hardcore Redditors (the “mob”), it’s a steady stream of fresh content, each piece to be evaluated as a candidate for the +1 vote of confidence, or the -1 vote of dismissal. Accumulate enough points—quickly enough—and it’ll appear on the front page of the site.

Perfect system, right? Read on…

Every programming problem has some corner case. Every loop has a first or last element that requires slightly modified processing.

Every time I create a special case in a program, I feel a little bit dirty. I’ve gone ahead and created redundant code. I’ve placed the same logic in two places. When one is changed, the other will break. Read on…