This past weekend I graduated from Marist College. For me it was a two day affair as I was awarded a scholarship award at another ceremony as well as my degree during the general commencement ceremony. I won’t bore everyone with the details but here is a general overview of the events.
Baccalaureate Ceremony
A few weeks back I was nominated for a scholarship award for my work as a student employee in my college’s networking department. This past semester I wrote a web application to help manage the new network access control system as well as provide a way for students to register network devices like game consoles and Tivos. I won the scholarship award and that meant I had to go to the Baccalaureate Ceremony on Friday. It lasted exactly one hour which was great for me since I don’t like ceremonies, especially long ones. The one interesting thing about the event was listening to everyone’s achievements. There were some very driven and talented individuals that definitely deserved to be honored there that day. One cool thing I got to do after the ceremony was take my picture with President Murray, the president of the college. Even though he doesn’t know who I am and probably never will, its still kind of cool.
Commencement
Saturday was the general commencement. The weather could not have been better. The only problem was we were wearing all black! I know that it is traditional for graduates to wear black robes but I think that is one tradition that needs to be thrown out. 
Our commencement speaker was Vicki Mabrey, a journalist for ABC News. I think she is on the show Nightline. Mabrey’s speech was short and to the point, exactly what a commencement speech should be. While I enjoyed the speech, I can’t help but feel that it was a little unremarkable. I don’t think I will remember the speech for the rest of my life but it certainly has an important messages for the next couple of years.
After the ceremony, the typical photos were taken with friends and family. The so called “reception” after the ceremony was pathetic. Marist really dropped the ball on that one. Marist, if you reading, make the reception a real one next time. Get some real food.
Anyway, after the pitiful reception, I got to introduce my mom and dad to some of my professors that have been instructing me these past four years. Putting a face to the many names I have said over the years was pretty important to them so I was happy to oblige.
Ceremony: Not a Fan
Just as a warning to any future girlfriends/wife that may be reading this, I do not like ceremony or tradition very much. The only reason why I went to my graduation is because my parents wanted me to. Since I owe my parents a lot it was the least I could do. But as a general rule, I find ceremony a tremendous waste of time and money. I don’t like weddings, award ceremonies, or any other event that is purely done because it’s tradition. So if you are a future girlfriend and you want a large wedding, we might have a problem.
Ground Rules
Friday, May 16th, 2008Now that the blog is up and running and I have introduced myself, it is time to set up some ground rules. These rules are are to let everyone know how I am going to operate and what to expect. Don’t worry, these rules are easy to follow and entertaining to read.
Rule 1: I suck at spelling and grammar!
Its a pretty self explanatory rule. I don’t have an English degree. I don’t want to be a writer. This blog is not meant to be a shining example of the English language. This is a stream of consciousness from my brain to the web. There are bound to be spelling mistakes and grammar mishaps. If I find them, I will do my best to correct them but it is not my top priority. So if you find a mistake, by all means let me know but I don’t want any critiques of my writing in the comments or via email.
Rule 2: This blog is not a democracy!
While I plan on being open to hear anyone’s opinion on subjects discussed on this blog I want to make is abundantly clear that this is not a democracy. I am the ruler of this site. Try to think of me as a benevolent dictator. You are free to express yourself until I deem that you have crossed the line. I am a pretty lenient and open minded person so you have to push me pretty far for me to take action. Think about that before posting your comment.
Rule 3: I am not a genius and I make mistakes!
This rule corresponds to the first rule a little bit. I will be posting technical content, such as code snippets, scripts, how-tos, etc and occasionally there will be times when the how-to is wrong or the script has a bug in it. I do not consider myself to be an expert in what I do but rather a perpetual learner. I love to learn new things and as I learn them, I want to pass my experience on to others that want to learn. That is the primary reason for this blog. If I do make a mistake, realize that I am only human and will do my best to fix the problem. If you do find a problem with a piece of code or a how-to please let me know so I can fix it and others can benefit from your find. And with anything I release the warranty is use at your own risk and I am not responsible for anything that happens.
There you have it! Those are the simple ground rules for my blog. Chances are I will never have to enforce these rules but its nice to write them down just in case. Stay tuned for more in the coming days and weeks!
Tags: Comments, Grammar, Mistake, Personal, Rules, Spelling, Warranty
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