Convocation 2018

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It’s done!

I spent 3 years at Lethbridge College in the Engineering Design and Drafting Technologies diploma program.  The Convocation ceremony lasted from 1:00~4:00pm.  About 12:00 inside the “Player’s Entrance” (the back door) of Enmax Centre we gathered into groups according to program and then alphabetically.  People soon dissipated – it was obviously going to take a while.  I texted the scoreboard a picture of Mom & me and a message in case they came.  They came, but they didn’t see it.

Thanks Mom and Floyd for everything!!!  Could not have done it without you!!!

Pending application and approval, I’ll be a Technologist in Training (T.T.).  After two years of working in the field, I’ll earn my C. Tech (Certified Technologist) or C.E.T. (Certified Engineering Technologist).

preparing for convocation

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Today is Convocation 2018.  It’s 10:30am.  Been keeping busy today so as not to get too nervous – doing dishes, reading the paper, doing Architecture homework.  We (convocates) should be there, lined up in order, no later than 12:15pm, so I’ll leave in an hour or so.  The ceremony is from 1-4pm.  I’ll be wearing my black gown, cap, & tassel and Lethbridge College green stole.  Good thing it’s a nice sunny day today.  It’s now 14°C and not a cloud in the sky.  My hair is cut, my gown & stole are pressed, my shoes shined.

I don’t think Mom & Floyd can make it.  Mom is pretty weak.  I know she really wanted to go, but she’s been unwell the past few weeks.  We took some pictures yesterday – Mom, Floyd, me in full dress.  The ceremony today is kind of like PBR (bull riding) in that it lasts for about 3 hours, it’s mostly sitting and clapping, and at the end of it hordes of people will be leaving.  Except this time, I’m a successfully graduated soon-to-be professional, and that’s no bull.  But I understand why she cannot go.  She has a hard time getting her breakfast and coffee down, let alone this.

I am missing my favourite formal black shirt.  It must be at Father’s house.  The last time I wore it was at Father’s viewing on Sept. 12, 2017.  It’s probably still hanging in the closet.  I’ll put on a tie – not sure which one yet – and head there early, on foot of course since it’s so close and I don’t want to fight for parking.  I’ll bring an e-book with me to keep me occupied.

I’m supposed to meet Clara there after the ceremony.  She said she’d come down from Calgary to see me.  I’m sure she has other people to see, too.  All my peeps from class will be there too, I’m guessing, except Aaron.  He said he’d not attend the convocation ceremony.  Actually, he said he’d attend as an audience member!  <sigh>  Well, maybe I’ll see him there later, along with Tyson, Randy, and my other teammates and classmates.

Gotta go graduate.  Catch you later!

quiet winter

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Now I remember why I like winter.  I enjoy summer, yes, just as much as spring and fall.  But it now, suddenly, occurs to me why I enjoy winter – no loud muscle cars, screeching tyres, Harley-Davidson bikes with noisy lag pipes, and Japanese motorbikes wound up to 9000 RPM.  It goes on and on forever.  I should hear birds, people talking, kids on bikes.  I only hear 4×4 trucks revving.  <sigh>  Living in Ilsan, Korea, a 2.5-million-person satellite city of Seoul, was more peaceful than this.  By the time the world runs out of dinosaur fossil fuel and runs on something quieter, I’ll be a deaf old man.

ode to Euler, Bernoulli, Leibniz, and many many more

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It seems to me that the book Leonhard Euler and the Bernoullis by M. B. W. Tent should be standard optional reading before starting any Calculus course at college.  It seems to me to be a read worthy of a read before the course to put a bit of history behind the whole concept of Calculus.  It puts into perspective how all the mathematic sciences have evolved over time.  It was suggested by one of my Instructors at Lethbridge College, Braum Barber.  If anyone wants to give it a read, they can find it here.

12/3/2017  9:04 AM      2664775 Tent – Leonhard Euler and the Bernoullis.pdf

spring begins, as do corrections

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It’s sunny, warm, pleasant.  Yesterday I met TB & RH (my bamboo research group) to talk about our submission to the ASET Capstone project.  We all wrote blurbs about ourselves, and TB will organize it all and submit it.  I trust Ty to catch all the goofinesses such as font sizes, placement of images, etc.

I worked on the Architectural class group project.  CE, a teammate in the Stan’s Stuff – Auto Parts and More, said he could meet up and work on it with me.  It’d be a good portfolio item.  It turns out he was too busy with flooding in his house and preparing to travel.  Se, the other teammate, rarely shows up for any length of time to help.  Very helpful when he does, but it’s rather seldom.  So I’ll continue to work until it’s absolutely time to wipe the drives on the computer.  Work on what?  Corrections to assignments.  All those red marks on assigments – I’ve paid for them.  I paid money to have the instructor put red all over my paper.  I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let that go to waste.

All students’ computer drives need to be wiped at the end of this course.  They have software on them that’s only licensed to the college.  We get a deposit back when we allow this.  I forget how much – like a hundred dollars or so.  No wipe, no deposit back.  So, we’re all told repeatedly to back up our stuff and save anything we want to save on another drive.  I’ve got my server (the one you’re reading this on) to store my stuff.

In case you’re wondering, I rarely use real names here on the ongoing letter.  I don’t imagine people would want their names, faces, etc. online.  So, rather than names, I use initials.  Are they real?  Who knows!  Ha!

Live

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I found a few new shows on Netflix now that I figured out how to change the settings on it.

Funny how four out of five are sci-fi.

I contacted Netflix a few weeks ago and told them I resented having to see people standing in their front yard with blood gushing out of their faces after having eaten another person, all the way smiling.  Gross.  I told them I didn’t want that in my house, in my living room.  No, Netflix doesn’t actually do a good job selecting for me what it thinks I might like – obviously a terrible job.  Fix it!  A couple of weeks later, the menus change, and now there’s thumbs up or thumbs down without having to actually view it or intentionally search for it just to have a thumbs-up or -down button.  Finally some control to get that crap off my screen.

I’m not into zombies, or blood, or walking dead, or whatever they can pull out of the dark turd pots of their minds.  When will this finally disappear?  Zombies???  What, are you five?  I’ve seen enough in real life, thank you.  Not interested.

I also subscribe to Curiosity Stream, a documentary website.  Now that’s leisure time well spent.

snow melt flooding

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There’s a lot of water around these days.  This winter has had the heaviest snowfall that I can remember.  Now it’s all turning into runoff.

 4/15/2018  7:23 PM      3686198 flooded sidewalk 28 Ave S near Parkbridge Estates 20180410_192204.jpg
 4/15/2018  7:23 PM      3525579 flooded sidewalk 28 Ave S near Parkbridge Estates 20180410_192323.jpg
 4/15/2018  7:23 PM      4762137 flooded sidewalk 28 Ave S near Parkbridge Estates 20180412_072449.jpg

another windshield bites the dust

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I’ve got a crack in my windshield again.  This is my second windshield, and now it’s cracked.  So … let’s see … that’s two broken windshields and two broken back windows.  I’m not having very good luck with autoglass.

perspective

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As I’m finishing my education and getting ready to search for jobs, I know there is so much for me to learn still.  We all come out of our course thinking that we’re qualified, have got the knowledge, will run out and do great things.

I saw a video tour of New York City from 1911 on YouTube.  They had traffic management with electric, petroleum, and horse powered vehicles intermingling.  They had trains being driven several storeys over the street, buildings so high that an engineer these days would take seemingly forever to design and build.  They had so much already back then.  We think we’re doing something new – and we probably are – but we may be forgetting that these things have all been done without the technological help that we have today.  Damn amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohXOpKtns0   Keeps it all in perspective.

EDDT is done (pretty much)

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Yesterday was my last class in the Engineering Design and Drafting Technology program.  I handed in my last project at 10pm yesterday evening and went home.  (I made this a bigger font ’cause it’s been a pretty major thing in my life for the past few years.)

I’m sitting at 75.63% (unofficial) in my weakest subject, Process Design, but the Final Project is not marked yet.  We designed oil & gas vessels and pipelines and studied how these systems work.

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