I'm fully graduated.

I walked across the stage this morning, and got my nice diploma holder. I can't believe it went by so fast. Well, not all that fast, the IT department had their hundreds and hundreds of graduates to deal with. So we had to wait for them.

7:15 line up starts at the SLC
7:25 Paul wakes up.
7:30 Paul has his hair combed, and 2 layers of his clothing on.
7:40 Paul is shouting at cars with stupid drivers on the RIT campus.
7:42 Running across campus to get to SLC.
7:42:45 Leaping over roadside ravine to reach SLC
7:42:46 Didn't make it. Right foot lands in muddy puddle.
7:46 arrive SLC. Good thing I'm in training for that race on Thursday.
7:47 Accosted by CS staff. Ohh, so you're late. Get card. Go stand in line.
7:48 Find spot in line.
Wait.
Wait some more.
Keep waiting.

In the meanwhile, we're trying to decide what side our tassles should go on. We're standing in 3 lines. The tiny Software Engineering department is off to our left. Software enginners are the architects, the designers of future programs. They have their tassles to the left. To our right, is the giant massive line of Information Technology students. They are the "end users", the people who make software do stuff. The have their tassles to the right for the most part.

Obviously, there is much confusion among the Computer Science majors in the middle. We are a mish-mosh of left and right tassles.

This is inherent of the problems in software development. When the architects and the end users can't come to an agreement on standards, the developers in the middle are screwed.

Of course though, as luck would have it, the Software Engineers are the correct group. The cameras that were filiming our walking across the stage, and they were using cameras that were positioned to our left to film us. Thus, to get our faces, our tassles would need to be on the left. This detail was obviously beyond the grasp of the IT majors.

Anyway, continuing on with the ceremony.
8:30 AM, leave SLC headed for the big tent.
8:40 start filing into the big tent. Grab a seat. Watch the show from the side of the stage. Listen to Kristina Springborn speak again.
As for the actual walking across stage, somebody was thinking and came up with a really good system. Each of us are given a card, it has a number, our name, and a pronunciation key to our name (if needed). As you're walking on to the platform, you give your card to one of the platform attendants, who reads the number into the headset. The control room punches up the number which has your name and your honors (high honors in my case. W00t!), and that is displayed on the TV screen. Then you get your card back, and give it to the person reading the names. (Margaret Reek in my case, interim chair of the CS department, and one of the professors who I really regret not ever having as a professor while at RIT.)

Okay, walk across the stage, shake hands, and get waved at by my good friend, Dave, the Santa Claus Interpreter :-)

Well, i'll break this up into two entries, and give you a rundown of the rest later!