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October 12, 2004
Setting the Curve
I experienced something this morning that I have not experienced in a long long time. The other day I wrote about the first test I've taken in grad school, and it turns out that my score set the curve. Wow, that hasn't happened since high school. There is a certain sense of pride that one gets by doing better than all others in a given situation. I think this is a built in function in our brain, like laughing. Anyway, it does feel good, but the important part is that I shouldn't let this success go to my head. I worked hard to understand the material, and will need to do the same for my next test.
So I kinda feel this urge to get into the Open-Source programming community. I am often very uncertain when it comes to my programming skills, but I think if I really get involved in some project I can hone my abilities by working on something I really care about. So the question is: Which comes first the programming skills or the difficult projects? In any case, I'm going to look into participating in the construction of Sun's Looking Glass desktop environment. It seems cool and new, and perhaps a good place to pick up Java, a rather important programming language.
I finished my paper. I'd say I did alright. I'll post it up for you all to read after class is over. (Wouldn't want my classmates to steal my work before I turn it in...like they would.)
By the way, this book may be a cool one to own, but I wouldn't know at this point. (hint, hint ;-) )
Posted at October 12, 2004 01:20 PM