BLAW 201 – Final Exam
PHSY 480 – Research Paper, Final Paper
ISYS 426 – Presentation
INFO 630 – Final Exam
INFO 638 – Assignment 4

That is a list of all the work I have left to do this term. As compared to the Winter, the Spring has definitley been a lot easier. Only 5 classes, the two grad courses don’t require massive projects or implementations, two undergrad courses are electives so I don’t really care. The only course that I knew would be hard from the outset was Senior Design. And it was. Took a lot of work, but it felt good to be doing this kind of work. I don’t really care for the other four courses this term. There is no motivation. I think the only reason I’m still persisting in Senior Design is because I have a point to prove from last term.

The amount of lethargy, dislike and allround hatered for education has reached a peak this term. It is quite like the frustration that I felt during some periods in high school, where the education was rather irrelevent and not in the least bit challanging. I sincerely hope that this is a passing phase. I have another year of college left (50 credits over 3 terms) so I can not afford to feel this way come the new academic year. I need to snap out of this over the summer.

As it comes closer to graduation, and a lot of the kids I started with are graduating, it is only natural that I think forward to mine. Not too long ago I was fascinated by continuing with further research and seriously pondered it. The MBA idea is still there and crops up every now and then. But before I pursue either of these though, I need a few years in the industry. The prospect of that itself terrifies me – not because it is difficult, but because I know I’ll be bored to tears. And even then, there is another obstacle that I need to over come before I can make either of those options a reality.

Just a year ago, I was so sure where I was going to be in 15 years, what I was doing to get there and how I would achieve these goals. Now — it is all I can do to create and follow a goal for the next week.

It is the beginning of May. It shouldn’t be this cold. The current low outside is 4 centigrade. I’m ready to be done with winter. A few weeks of nice bright sunshine, and less rain would agree really well with me. Although, I’m sure that as soon as I go to Bangalore I’ll be complaining about the incredibly high temperatures.

I’m the proud owner of a Sony Vaio T140P. It is a 3.1 pound light, ultra-portable laptop. And I bought it myself! As I did my Treo 600 Phone and my Athlon64 desktop machine. I think as far as computer equipment goes, I’ve reached the pinacle. Currently, there is nothing more I could want. Well, actually, let me change that:
1) Wireless keyboard & mouse
2) 19″ or 21″ flat panel monitor
3) Creative Audigy SB Live
4) A high end video card
5) A nice set of computer speakers

The long term plan is to, howerever, connect a home theatre system to the computer. Music from the PC will be connected to the home theathre system speakers. The home theatre system will consist of a a projector and screen which will be connected to both a cable box and the PC(s). The laptop will always remain an ultra-portable system, while the desktop will a power hungry monster. The desktop will have one of those awesome 21″ HDTV displays that is made by Sony. I will have good dreams tonight.

From my dream, though, the only things I should get soon are the keybouard + mouse and the monitor. Everything else will have to wait many years as they are not unrgently necessary. Neither was the Vaio though, but it is just so sweet!

I am going to recap the hardware specifications of all my machines. It is partly to boast, and partly so that I can read this entry 7 years from now and marvel at how silly I was to be excited at owning new gadgets. Who am I kidding, I will never tire of owning brand spanking new electronic gizmos!

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The desktop is an Athlon64 2800+ (1.8 Ghz), with 1 GB of RAM. It has 180 GB of internal HDD space and a 160 GB external firewire drive. It also has an 8x DVD writer (52x CD). It currently has Mike’s ATI 9200 (PCI) video card, and the audio is built onto the mother board, which is an ASUS K8V-SE. That covers the basics.

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The Treo, is a PalmOS powered PDA/phone combo. The phone portion is provided by T-Mobile. I have a cradle that allows it to charge, as well as sync with my desktop. It’s process is nothing great, but it is enough to run a few apps, a few games, surf the internet when I need to, as well as to check e-mail. Sure, it is larger than a regualr phone but it sure beats carrying around two devices. The fact that it syncs with Outlook allows it to put all my contacts, tasks and reminders on there. This is extremely useful.

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The Vaio…aaah! What can I say about it. I could just go on. It is 3.1 pounds light, comes with 512 MB of RAM, a built in DVD/CD-RW drive, 40 GB of HDD space and a 1.1 GHz Centrino processor. The built in Wi-Fi is an absolute boon. The screen is only 10.6″ but the XBRITE technology that Sony puts on there is just awesome. I got a port-replicator with it, which makes it easy to just place on my desk without worrying about the hassel of wires. I just need to get an extra AC adapter.

That covers the boasting/recap for the future. Seeing these three on my desk just makes my sigh…with happiness.