September 2004

Earlier this week I snapped this shot of the Cathedral of Knowledge (Pitt’s big landmark, also known as the “Tower of Ignorance” ).

Did you know that Carnegie Mellon offers Bagpiping as a major?

You might have heard that Bill Gates just donated 20 million dollars to the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science to build what will now be called the “Gates Center for Computer Science.”

We’ll all be gone long before the building is completed, but that sure as hell didn’t stop us from snagging our share of the free food Microsoft provided this afternoon. I’ve come to realize grad school is all about snagging as much free food as possible. $15,000/term in tuition and all it takes is some free cheese and crackers to make us happy.

Update: I’ve posted some pictures of the spread that they set up for the Microsoft celebration. It was quite impressive. In the second picture you can find me if you look hard enough: (photos shamelessly lifted from the SCS website)

Wow, almost a month since I last posted to this thing. I really shouldn’t let it slip this much anymore.

Well, as of about 20 minutes ago I’m 23 years old. Well, I guess technically I’m not 23 until about 8:00am, but right now I really don’t care.

I’m finally all settled in at Carnegie Mellon, and we started class Monday. The crush has already hit. After spending about 7 hours in the “cave” (more on that later) doing other homeworks, I’ve headed home to clear my head before starting a one-page writeup on a case study thats due tomorrow morning.

I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker. Too much of it does strange things to my head. But now I’m realizing just how important it will be for my survival in this program.

Update: This post should be read in more of a cynical tone… I’m not as angry or depressed as it may have sounded. I was pretty damn tired and stressed at the time. I’m not (nearly) as tired or stressed now…