Quotes from my lit professor:

"Everyone is given something she can share with the world. Sometimes it takes half a life to figure out what that is."

(On why cut flowers are expensive) "Anything that dies in a day but is this beautiful is very precious. You only have a day to realize how beautiful it is."

That made me think about how we should act around people we'll only see once.

Quotes from my CIS professor:

"But you know the teacher's credo—if none of you get this, I have to kill myself at the end of the semester. It's the way of the teacher."

"Some teachers go crazy when you use parentheses on an expression that's going to be evaluated first anyway. I don't care. It's like wearing a belt, and suspenders too!"

(On somebody turning in homework assignments on 5 x 8" sheets of paper) "Hey, could you make these smaller? Make em toilet paper sized and then I'd have some use for em."

He had some serious things to say as well, such as the "key to succeeding in IT":

• Be inch deep, mile wide (know a little bit of everything)
• Also, be inch wide, mile deep (have a lot of expertise in a few areas)

After the last class of the semester, I went up and asked him for some "general college advice." The way he answered me, you'd think I had asked, "Please tell me who I am and what I should do to end up with the ideal job." Good stuff ^___^. Here's some of it:

• Take the Meyers-Briggs test. Learn about the different types of personalities, not just to find out about yourself, but to figure out how to adapt your personality to make others feel more comfortable around you. (Something about doing this so consciously seems freakishly shrewd, almost negatively so. Good to consider nonetheless.)
• Get your bachelors in business and your masters in computer science. (I found this advice rather disturbing as I've never thought of going into business, but I'm already kinda checking it out by enrolling in an economics class this fall. Looking for more opinions on this ^^;;.)
• Before you actually need a job, do 10 tech job interviews in the area and assess your strengths and weaknesses based on the feedback you get. (Wow, almost like applying TDD to life.)
• Don't keep wandering around. "But lucky for you," he said, "You've been wandering in the right direction." (Lol?)
• All resumes are the same, listing all kinds of skills and technologies, etc. What really matters is if they like you. They will like you if you remind them of themselves. (Again, freakish. But probably true.)

More Ruby-chan

A short fiction we read in class

Short fiction by James Joyce

Hullo, good sir. How may I be of assistance?


This fall I'm taking classes full-time while working part-time. So far it seems like I'll be ok, though that'll probably change as the semester progresses, heh. Biology will be the toughest; I'm also taking Macroeconomics, Java 2, and Kickboxing 2 (:D). I'm pretty excited about Java because we'll be focusing on web apps. And thankfully, my professor is really nice and it doesn't seem like she'll have a problem with the fact that I kinda skipped Java 1. As for whether or not I'll make it despite that fact, I've yet to find out x.x.

Postponage of certain projects thus ensues! If you want me to do anything for you this fall, ask me NOW XD!!