From the Department of the Registrar at SCSU
August 26, 2008

"When I looked at your transcript it does have your degree recorded – 8-14-08. You received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Management. Diplomas are mailed out about 8 weeks after graduation however if you ordered your transcript the degree is listed on the transcript."

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

I Beat College!
August 15, 2008

I have beaten the final boss, and am awaiting the credits to roll by. Oh lordy, I'm done! T'was actually pretty anti-climactic and I don't feel like I've just pulled off thirty super spin combos or beaten a giant dragon, or anything. I suppose that maybe it will set in once I get total confirmation and don't have to do crazy scheduling stuff anymore. I am definitely happy to be done though.

Now, let's all play the predict how SCSU will try to screw me over game. Leave your vote in a comment to this posting, the most creative wins a free subscription to my rss feed. ;p

My Last Day at St. Cloud State!
August 14, 2008

Hooray, its my last day. There's a delicious exam to send me off, but an easy one at that. Almost there...

Holy Crap! Three More Days!
August 12, 2008

There's only three more days left, presumably, in my entire college career. I'm so excited that its almost palpable. Not quite yet, though, as the gods of St. Cloud State - including Sir Harry Potter the III Esquire More Honorific Surnames - probably still have more tricks up their sleeves to try to keep me there. I've only got one paper, one more exam (which should be a cake-walk) and another class of rigorous and educational walking. They'll figure something out.

Actual free time awaits me patiently, as do my many now-dormant projects. I swear, if ListForge wasn't enough awesome for you - just wait until you see what totally interesting app I have coming down the pike next. ;p IN THREE DAYS!

Counting Down the Days
July 29, 2008

There are now 16 days of class left until I graduate and can finally say that I'm done with St. Cloud State. Oh, I know... they currently have their drones pouring over documentation in order to prevent my graduation, but I'm hoping that they can't do it in time! It is Summer, after-all, SCSU employees don't really work over Summer.

16 Days!

Group Projects Are Fun
May 08, 2008

Group projects are so much fun. There always seems to be at least one group every semester where there's at least one person who doesn't pull their weight. Our MGMT 453 class has a paper worth around 50% of our grade due on Friday and two members still haven't contributed their final versions. Oi.

It's a good thing that I don't play GTAIV or anything, or I might get some terrible ideas about becoming Russian and eating hot dogs (Draz, who bakes their hot dogs? Really.) to regain my health. Oh well, this semester will soon be done with and I won't have to worry about this kind of pewp anymore (I'm assuming that Summer courses won't have this stuff built in). Hooray!

Graduation So Close...
December 19, 2007

One of my real life buddies e-mailed me today telling me that Summer classes were posted. Alas, registration has not yet begun - but something utterly awesome happened while I was there. I happened to flip back to Spring 2008 semester to check on my courses and loe! One that I needed was there and fit within my schedule. I've got five classes lined up for next semester, but if I play everything right I can definitely be done half-way through Summer! Fantastic!

St. Cloud State University; Oh teh Course Offerings
November 29, 2007

This semester's registration was a little different than most. Rather than waiting until the week before class to register (and face whatever stupid problem SCSU invented this time over breaks rather than during finals), I decided to get a jump start and register close to when my window opened up. Four days after window opening, I hopped onto the SCSU wob-site in an attempt to locate classes for my second to last semester and loe - there were none. "Hwat?", says you, "but you should have a much sooner window than everyone else! You've been going there since time began!" - Why yes young grasshopper, but SCSU lacks business sense.

With further frustration I began going through the entire course catalog attempting to locate professor's so that I could petition for overrides into their classes. My dismay grew with every "ding" from FireFox notifying me that there were no courses. I finally tracked it down, and out of the sixteen management electives - only seven were being offered this semester. That's right, only 43% of the courses were actually being offered. One of the four management core classes was even being offered only once during the daytime. Something had to be wrong, I thought to myself - but alas, I was wrong in thinking that they were wrong.

I met with the chairperson this morning and found the terrible truth - SCSU actually only runs half of its management electives every semester. Wonderously fantabulous! Despite this, I've managed to get my needed four classes this semester but with the absolute most terrible schedule ever imagined - a night class, an 8A and a noon class all fall on the same day. Oi.

So, if I'm a little grumpy during the Spring - you'll know why. With all luck , diligence and SCSU fighting I'll be able to finish this Summer though.

Update - Whole New Levels of Professionalism

It appears that the issues I was having with the SCSU registration web-site earlier this week were just a precursor. Tonight they broke the authentication portion of the site and nobody (myself and two other people, at least) seems to be able to login. Bravo boys, this is your outward facing PR representation that collects thousands of dollars from people - and you can't handle something so simple as a login page. Oi.

St. Cloud State, Oh teh Grammers
November 16, 2007

A choice quote from some comments that one of my professors left on my latest paper;

"There are some problems with word usage. ... You suggestions are quite general and more detail is needed."

Update

Lulz, too good... this one is presumably from the President of SCSU. SCSU only uses the highly insecure and easily impersonated form of communication known as e-mail... so nobody can be sure... but it's funny nonetheless...

" I am writing to encourage you to join me in denouncing bias- motivated acts which threaten the well-being and security of groups targeted by this despicable behavior. We must do more than deal with racism and its impact on our students, faculty and staff. We must become known as a campus that is expert in building community. "

Yes... I will be known as a person that is expert in building community.

St. Cloud State, Oh the Safety
October 22, 2007

There was a robbery on campus this last Friday. That's really nothing terribly new, except that this one happened over by the old Business Building at 11:15A. That makes the third robbery on campus in the last month or so, and its really starting to bug me. I seriously have to wonder what is up when this sort of thing can happen at 11:15 in the morning on a school day while properly on campus.

Oh well. I should be done soon enough.

St. Cloud State's Image
October 10, 2007

This is what's found on the front-page of St. Cloud State University's web-site at the moment. Am I the only one afraid that this guy is a short moment away from destroying the cameraman with his wand of maki-maki-maki? Incidentally, this maniacal conductor's image is entitled "composer.jpg".

College Textbooks and the Monopoly Thereof
September 14, 2007

I bought a few of my textbooks for this semester. Man, that hurt and happens to be textbook (hah, pun!) example of why monopolies (even localized) are terrible for the consumer. Two used textbooks combined cost $235 and each had at least ten editions before it. Why? Both St. Cloud State University and the professors working for it support and enforce a monopoly. Amongst the two or three major textbook publishers, there is so little competition and so much price fixing that a fair deal can never be struck between a consumer (student) and the firm (publisher) that they are dealing with.

The one book that I definitely will not be purchasing through normal channels is a basic book on HR. How much is this book for a basic survey class, you may ask? It would cost me $160 for something that on the free market costs considerably less.

Is this really the outright murder of semi-free-market capitalism in higher learning institutions? The real reason that I'm paying $160 isn't because it costs that much to manufacture the textbook. It isn't for the Indian editor to add a few sentences and re-arrange homework problems to make this a new edition. It can't be for the raw materials used. It certainly isn't for the rigorous fact checking.

What is it for then? What explains the difference between the free market on educational books and the closed market on college textbooks other than a monopoly?

Back to SCSU and What to Put Stuff Into
September 06, 2007

School started again yesterday, joy. Everyone knows about my love of SCSU. I do, however, only have about one semester of SCSU remaining. I'm excited to finally be graduated from this place and be able to move on with my life. Hopefully they don't come back to tell me that they decided to add a class, like they did with Andy...

I've also noticed how woefully decrepit all of my bags have become. My beloved blue Gap messenger bag, while lasting more than 4 years, is starting to show it's age in the many Winter stains and frayed edges. My backpack is nice and all, but it just doesn't have enough pockets and... well, it's a backpack. I've been eyeballing the Classic Messenger bag from Timbuk2 for quite some time, but I just find it hard to part with $85 for a bag. I know that I'll get years of service out of it... but it's hard to pay that much.

So, does anyone have any suggestions of alternative locations to search for more economically feasible yet still attractive bags?

Political Correctness
May 07, 2007

From my BCIS exam; "The recent trend in less rich countries is to adopt free ____ software to avoid high costs.". Apparently it is incorrect to say "poor" now.

That is all.

Finals Week
May 01, 2007

Well, next week is finals. We don't even get any time to study this semester - so wish me luck. I'll be hunkered down for the rest of my free-time this and next week, so don't expect any posts. After that though - I'll finally have more than a fleeting moment of free-time! JOY!

One other great thing, I never have to hear another lecture by my BCIS professor! Last week he told us all about the joys of SDLC (or "Waterfall" design methodology) and how it is revolutionizing the software industry, but how Object-Oriented "design patterns" were becoming more prevalent. *knock-knock* 1993 called, it wants its design patterns back.

Post-Tuition Blues
January 09, 2007

Man, as I'm browsing Newegg, attempting to replace my array of tiny disks with one giant one, I'm reminded of how much I hate the few months that follow paying tuition. All of my spending money quickly goes out the door and I'm left to try to do everything on the cheap. I bought a few used games this weekend with the hopes that they'll keep me from wanting to go out for awhile and keep me from feeling the need to buy anything else. I do miss having access to those files though. :(

It's also a pain in the ass since far before tuition payment I've cut almost everything unnecessary out of my budget. I manage to save almost 50% of my income (barring that big tuition payment) - so that should give an idea of how much I cut out.

Happy Day!
January 04, 2007

Ok, so I went over to the pre-business advising center this morning. After 15 minutes of back and forth about not bending the rules at all, the person I was speaking to let me know that they couldn't cancel my classes because I had an override in place. Thank God! I'll be perfectly able (*knock on wood*) to get the 2.65 cumulative next semester.

Entry Denied
January 03, 2007

Sad day. I open my email and find that they've denied me entry to my major based on my being 0.01 units below their minimum. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do now. I have nothing that I can take. Sad. I'm going to go in and talk to them tomorrow.

ALL B'S!!!
December 29, 2006

Phew! I got my grades today and found a delicious surprise; not only did I pass everything - but I got ALL B's! This is phenomenal since I took both Accounting 292 (Managerial Accounting) and a stats class this semester. Two hard classes, both with cumulative finals and the Accounting final not letting us have ANY notes, formulas or even a decent calculator.

*does a happy dance*

In honor of this joyous day, you may all listen to schnappi and view the mortgage bear of fortune for some happiness.

Finals Are OVER!
December 20, 2006

Oh, thank the Gods! I am finally finished with finals! My marathon Tuesday started with BLAW at 08:30 then came BCIS at 01:00 followed by ACCT at 03:45. I wasn't finished until 06:00! My accounting final was 20 pages of 60 questions, 70% of which were computation. My gods, my head... it hurts. So much.

What I'm trying to say is, I'll have time to post again!

Another Day of School Down
September 12, 2006

Wow, I'm finally done with another day of classes. Eight AM classes really do kick my ass; getting up before the sun is never a good thing for a human being like me to do. It makes me drag for the whole day. Everything's shaping up well though, this shouldn't be a bad semester for me. *knocks on wood*

Currently I'm getting up at 06:30A and not getting home until around 07:00P. How late do you guys usually stay out of the house?