Life according to Gordon

I'm actually somewhat exhausted right now, so I can't make any promises about the length or depth of this post, even though a lot has happened over the last week or so, especially just this weekend. Last Sunday, I had my final exam in Linear Programming, which was quite difficult indeed, but I pulled it off and I have passed the class! That marks the end of my college career. I took part in the afternoon commencement ceremony. You can watch the video online if you want, but it's kind of boring. I'm on camera between 1:10:43 and 1:10:55. The speakers were okay; although honestly I have to admit I closed my eyes and started to doze off through some of them. Pretty standard issue stuff, really. One guy even started his speech by just saying a bunch of cliché phrases that you usually hear in speeches as examples of what he was not going to do, and how his speech was going to be so much more, etc. Except then he went on to give the normal, boring speech that he said he wouldn't. Oh well. The important part is, I got my diploma. Except I didn't actually. I got an empty diploma frame. They're all empty because they haven't actually confirmed that everyone receiving one actually graduated, since grades aren't actually due until after the ceremony. I always thought that was a bit odd. I feel bad for anyone who walks in the ceremony and later finds out they didn't graduate. That would suck.

But silly bureaucratics aside, I have earned two degrees: one in math, the other in computer science. And jesuslordinheaventhankyou I am grateful to be done. No more homework! Hallelujah! At least, that's assuming I don't ever decide to get a master's. But we're not going to think about that right now, since I'm done, and I'm happy, and I don't need a master's right now. My parents threw me a small graduation party today. We had ridiculously large cupcakes (emphasis on the "-cake"), and sushi, and a meat/cheese platter, and we sat around the fireplace with a few friends and talked. So that was nice. My roommates also threw me a small graduation party last Wednesday, and a couple of former roommates, Merritt and Andrew, showed up. Since I hardly ever get to see them anymore, that was really nice, too. But I'm very grateful to be done. I'm not sure that it's fully sunk in yet. Perhaps this week when I come home and realize that I don't have any school-related obligations to attend to, I'll really start to experience the joy. We'll see.

I also went snowboarding yesterday for the first time in about seven years. My sister and I drove up to a place called Cascade, which was a little difficult to find at first, but well worth the trip. She went skiing instead of snowboarding, probably because she's a girl. I'm now thinking about eventually buying my own snowboard, if not just to save money on the rental, but also to inspire me to get out more often to do it. The last time I went was on a trip with the Boy Scouts in years past, and I was only slightly worried that I'd already forgotten everything about it, but it was just like riding a bike. I didn't challenge any black diamond hills this time, though, just to be safe. Maybe next time.

I also visited a different church today, an Evangelical one called Blackhawk. It was, um, very very big. The main hallway is best described as an airport lobby, sans the gift shops and baggage claims. Well, maybe they did have baggage claims. I don't know. I was a little bit overwhelmed. They had three rooms you could attend services in, the one main room with the most gospelish music of the three, another that had more of rock music apparently, and I can't remember what type the third had. The last two had video streamed in of the pastor who was speaking in the main room. I sat in the main room. Very early on in the service, the pastor mentioned how they had raised about $140,000 to help the World Food Programme, or some other charity or something like that. I was extremely impressed with that. The actual sermon was about love, and he talked a bit about the Hewbrew word "hesed" (spelled H -- phloem -- E -- S -- E -- D), which was somewhat interesting. They also played a short film about getting along with relatives on the holidays (or more accurately, not getting along with relatives) as a segue into the rest of the sermon. Unfortunately I felt like the stuff he said afterward didn't go deep enough, or maybe I was hoping they would have followed it up with another resolution film or something, but oh well. They also had three interpretative dancers at one point. (As someone pointed out, "when I think Christmas, I think interpretative dance...") They were actually very good. I know next to nothing about dancing, but I just kind of felt like they were doing it beautifully. This was also the first time (ever) that I ate the cracker thing and drank the small vial of grape juice for communion. The cracker thing reminded me somewhat of Kame Crackers, which are awesome, so that was good. I think there's a real market for Christ's body crackers. Anyways like I said, I was super impressed with the fact that they raised so much money for charities. I like that kind of stuff.

I also helped a friend set up her new website this weekend at her request which was kind of fun. I work all day as a web developer, but I never really get tired of doing another new web project. Admittedly, setting up a blog is rather easy. But I did get to do some tweaks, like making the monster's teeth clickable. You'll see what I mean. I also watched an independent movie called Kabluey, which was absolutely hilarious. It's just a very, very bizarre comedy. If you've seen Little Miss Sunshine, it's like that. That kind of humor. Anyways, take a look at the trailer if you get a chance. Or better yet, rent it. It's well worth it.

I'm tired now, so I'm going to bed. But I will also quickly mention that I'm moving into a new apartment next week, and that is exciting. I will probably post details here, as well as possibly pictures. But now it's sleepy time.