Custom search engines in Chrome are a pretty cool feature. For example, Jimmy Theis has a great blog post about using them to look up someone’s Rose-Hulman class schedule. The one shortcoming I’ve found is that you can’t do any processing of the actual search term. In other words, you have to blindly jump to the search engine URL without evaluating the actual query.
Part of my Science Fiction course requires me to write a flash fiction. It turned out well enough that I’m not embarrassed to let people read it, so here it is.
Two final exams down and two to go. I feel pretty good about the first two, so hopefully I’ll feel the same about the others. I gotta say though, I’ll be ready for the break when all this is over. I’m gonna get a lot of sleep, because going into winter term, I know I won’t be getting much. It’ll be fun though. Even though Computer Architecture I and Databases will be challenging, I think I’m going to really enjoy them (of course, we’ll have to see how I feel at the end of the term 
).
The last week of classes for this quarter is here. Dispite people’s usual expectations about 10th week, my schedule really isn’t very full.
Hmm, maybe I’ll be busier this week than I thought.
Oh well, I guess that’s just part of being a student at Rose.
Fall Break officially begins at 5:10 today, and most students are off to visit friends and family. I of course don’t have to travel to see my family, so I instead will get a chance to catch up on the sleep I’ve lost over the past 6 weeks. Other things I plan to do over the break include work for IRPA, more development of my web hosting software, getting ahead in class reading/homework, and perhaps a little artwork.
Other bits of excitement… my parents are getting me a graphics tablet from WOOT for my birthday, and I’m waiting on a 1 TB external hard drive which should arive in the next couple days. I also just purchased a set of Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Technical Pens which I can’t wait to try out. It should be an exciting 4 days
This past weekend Rose’s Ultimate Frisbee Team hosted an Ultimate Frisbee tournament. 10 teams participated in heated games that lasted two days. In the end, Rose’s ‘A’ team beat Southern Illinois for the tournament title with a score of 12-10. I really enjoyed watching the tournament. Unfortunately, I enjoyed it so much that I forgot to take any pictures. Oh well, maybe I’ll get a chance in the spring.
Rose-Hulman is a school full of tradition. Last weekend we celebrated one of our greatest Homecoming traditions… the bonfire.
Freshman spend the week before homecoming constructing the bonfire out of about 5,000 railroad ties. It reaches 20-30 feet into the air and is crowned by an outhouse donated by someone in Terre Haute. Adding to the excitement, the sophamores attempt throughout the week to tear down the bonfire. 8:00 pm until 8:00 am is “open season”, but they have to get past the freshman who are guarding the bonfire with their lives (well, at least with nerf guns and maple syrup).
I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by Bebo White during his visit to Campus. He is known as “America’s First Webmaster”, so he’s got a lot of interesting stories to tell about the history of the World Wide Web.
Yesterday was sidewalk chalk day on campus. Following a tradition which started sometime in the distant past, students can pause between classes and do some chalk art on the many sidewalks crossing the Quad. A slightly newer tradition, started two years ago, is to write an irrational number to an insane number of digits.
Tomorrow is the day! Freshman classes will officially begin. Of course most of it will be no different than before, but I’ll have a much heavier load, plus I’m working 2-3 times as much this year than last year. It promises to be an interesting year!