While I was working in the senior design lab this afternoon, I overheard the following conversation and found it amusing enough to share:

Student 1: I feel like a nerd whenever my glasses get fogged up because of the rain. Do you ever feel like that?
Student 2: Well, I know I’m a nerd.

This week marks the start of my final quarter at MSOE, my final quarter of formal education, at least for the time being. I suppose there’s always a possibility of getting a Master’s down the road, but I’m ready to be done for now.

As I was talking with Stan this evening, I realized that the courses in which I’m enrolled this quarter really aren’t going to require that I write a whole lot of code, with the exception of Senior Design. However, even in that course, our project is in such a place that we’re doing more documentation and testing to provide a final product. I’m taking German Literature and Contemporary European Societies, the final two classes I need to secure a German minor. Then I’ve got some Management class that’s required and is essentially an overview of business for the non-business student. Finally, I’m taking a Computer Security class which promises to be interesting, but won’t involve any software development.

A few weeks ago I added a “Currently Reading” widget on the right-hand side of every page of my web site. This list details the books I’m reading at any point in time, whether for enjoyment or for class. If you’d like to see a list of past books I’ve read, use the view past books link.

Finally, this past Saturday marked the 10 year anniversary of my experience with web development. I launched my first Angelfire-based Web site at 12 years old, on March 3, 1997 and haven’t been able to stay away from Web design since.

I took a quick glance at my Web site statistics this evening and noticed that someone came across my site while trying to figure out how to import MySpace blog posts into Facebook’s Notes feature. So, I figured I’d write a brief tutorial to aid anyone else who is interested in doing this.

Before beginning, you must know your MySpace Friend ID. This is a numerical value … it is not the name used in the URL for your MySpace page. Since I’m not actually much of a MySpace user (the whole BlogSCL, PageSite, and erichmusick.com bit precludes the need for such a service), I’m not sure of the best way to find this value. However, one way to do this is to go to your MySpace page, hover over the link that says “View All Blog Entries” and look at the number that comes after the text friendID=. Once you have this number, follow these steps:

1. Log on to Facebook
2. Click My Notes
3. If you have not already imported a blog, you will see a box that asks, “Would you like to import a blog?” followed by the text: “To import your blog, click here.” Click that link.
4. For the Web URL, enter http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID={id}. Replace {id} with your MySpace Friend ID.
5. Check the box if you agree to Facebook’s terms for importing a blog.
6. Click the Start Importing button.

My dad, owner of DDM Garage Doors started up a blog today. He plans to talk about some of his experiences and offer various tips to those who repair their own doors. It’s one of few, if not the first blog, in the garage door repair industry. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of response it generates.

So a few weeks ago, some of us MSOEians (kind of like Martians, but from planet MSOE) were sitting around and the following comments were made after a discussion about siblings whose names all start with the same letter:

a.Larson: Well, my brother’s name and mine both start with a letter.
j.Dickman: I almost have that
b.Feil: Yeah, except for his little brother leet – spelled one-three-three-seven.

(Or any other college, for that matter)

After writing an e-mail to a high school senior this evening about how to succeed in college, I realized that other people in his position might also appreciate a few suggestions about how to succeed in college. So, here go some suggestions based on my experience at MSOE:

1. A lot of students fall in to the trap of playing video games and consequently start turning in assignments late and then end up dropping out of school. Video games might not be your trap, but there are plenty of others (poker, alcohol, sleep/laziness, etc.). I see a lot of fully capable students drop out solely because of poor time management.

2. Any experience related to your field is valuable and looks good on a resume. I’ve found that the internships and jobs I’ve held to be great experiences and I’d encourage all students to get some kind of job related to their major during the summer. If possible, it’s nice to continue those jobs or internships during the school year, if you’ve got time. Having a little extra cash on hand never hurts.

3. Get to know your professors. I don’t know if this is even possible wherever you’re planning to go. At MSOE I’ve always had very small class sizes and have had the opportunity to interact with my professors quite a bit. It’s great being able to get advice about them not just about the class but also about where to look for a job and other such topics.

4. Along the of getting to know your professors, extracurricular involvement is also important. Depending on the nature of the organization, it can be a great opportunity to learn from those who are working in your field and to network with people who could hire you when you graduate. Though some student organizations don’t have the professional aspect that is present in IEEE, ACM, etc., being an active member (and especially a leader) gives you valuable experience and help to make you a more well-rounded individual.

   My student organization involvement has not been huge, however my experiences with IVCF have been positive. Some will tell you to get involved in as many organizations as you can. Others say as long as you’re a part of one, that’s sufficient. I would tell you to do what works for you. If you’ve got the time to be involved with a lot of organizations and can make a contribution, then go for it. As is true for many things, I think quality should take precedence over quantity.

5. Teamwork and leadership are key. When you start interviewing for jobs, you’ll be asked questions like, “Tell me about a time a team member didn’t pull their weight. How did you handle the situation?” and “What role do you generally play on a team?” Learn the proper way to deal with common hiccups. Learn how to lead a team (and what it means to lead vs. dominate) and you’ll do well.

So … it’s official. I’m somebody!!!!! I even have the certificate to prove it:

I’m going home for the weekend because the Lemon is in town. I learned last night that the use of Stan‘s last name in that sort of construct is referred to as “Invoking the Big ‘L’.” You might think I’m joking, but he seems to take those sorts of things seriously. Observe:

11:12:49 PM Stan Lemon: A lady in HT e-mailed me today and referred to her computer as a “Lemon”, this was after she asked me for help with her e-mail.
11:12:58 PM Stan Lemon: I e-mailed her back and told her I wouldn’t work with her if she kept that tone.

Disclaimer: In case it wasn’t clear, the bit about finally being someone was supposed to be sarcastic.

I’d love to take the time to write some long, sentimental thank you and note of appreciation to all my friends, but because we’re going to do family devotions in a few minutes here, I thought I’d keep things brief. Thank you to all who not only made my birthday a great day, but also are there for me through thick and thin during the other 364 days of the year. And, in order to make sure I haven’t missed anyone … I appreciate all you who took the brief moment or two to write on my Facebook wall or send me a text message or IM wishing me a happy birthday.