The lunch and learn session at work this week invited the Professional Engineer Association of BC to talk about P.Eng. application. They started with the question why apply for P.Eng. To be honest, their argument are not very convincing, other than it is required by Canadian law to register as an engineer to practise engineering. To my disappointment, I found out I had always wrongly assume those DJ calling themselves sound engineers are illegal. In fact, anyone can call himself an engineer except when his work has public or safety concerns. I have already made up my mind to apply for P.Eng. I did it just for the sake of having another four letter title behind my name. I somehow have a feeling this title may becomes handy in the future with reasons I can’t really justify. The second part of the session is a Q&A about the application process. Other paying about a thousand dollars for the application, seminer and examation fee, the biggest hurdle is to write the 10 pages work experience. After I had talked to them, I think I get the feeling of what they are expecting. Basically, they are asking for BS on how to present yourself as an engineer, re-describe your boring task with fancy ideas about application of theory and socialy implication. I estimate it would take me about a weekend to write the first draft, followed by a week to put on some decloration. Right now, I am aiming to write the practise exam in July. I will start filling out the application forms and write that 10 pages of BS after my move.

Today I came across large collection of quality eassies written by
Paul Graham. His articles not only written in good style and easy to read, they are also thought provoking. There are many things to learn from his writings.

Today I have my master thesis defense. I have been waiting for this day. I dress in my new suit going to work, everyone ask me what is the special occasion and I am happy to tell them. I did my preparation last night, rehearsed my slides, but I am still quite nervious today. Since I have no external examiner, I don’t expect though questions and I got none. As a tradition, I bought donuts for my audiences. Pat came to see my defense and lend me her laptop to display the slides. Two friends from work also shown up. There are a few other graduate students sat in, but they are very polite without asking though questions. My presentation is long, plus one of my supervisor is late, the presentation of my thesis went on until 5p.m. I spot one of the examiner fell asleep in the middle of my presentation. I must admit the material of my thesis is quite dry and boring. The Q&A part of my defense went smoothly as I expected. Everyone is nice, no though question asked. Althought the chairman spot a minor error in one of my diagrams. I recieved a pass on my thesis defense. All I left to do is fix some typos in my report, sent it to my supervisor and fill out the paper works in the grad office. I can declare I have a master degree once I see the degree shows up in my transcript. It is getting really really close.

I have start packing my stuff for my move next tuesday. So far I have only finished packing my two most valuable asset groups, toys and books. I have quite a lot of toys indeed. Luckily, I keep all the original boxes, so I don’t have to worry about storing the toys. I have quite a lot of books too. My books filled 6 boxes. I think I need a new bookshelf in my new place. I hope I will not run out of wall space to put bookshelves. I have this weird habit that when I visit other’s place, I always check out their book collection. The books one read can tell a lot about the person. Oddly that I havn’t met someone has more books than myself. Most people don’t even have enough books to fill one bookshelf.

A friend of mine is moving back to HK. He has a golden retriver that he cannot bring along. Pat has taken care of the dog for a few weeks when he is on vacation. He asked whether Pat want to adopt the dog. It seems he didn’t have the poor dog in mind when he plan his move. His is leaving town in a month and he ask Pat with such a short notice. He keeps saying dropping the dog off to SPCA is the last option. How can a dog owner be like this? He always claim to be the dog is dad, but he choose to ditch the dog when it becomes a burden. Owning a dog require responsibility, people can’t just throw the dog away when they don’t like it anymore. Pat cannot take this poor dog since she already has two dogs in the house. She is very upset by the lack of responsibility of this dog owner. It seems she puts more effort in finding a home for the dog. If Pat didn’t ask, the dog owner doesn’t even bother to prepare an dog adoption to circulate among friends of friends. Maybe we should consider Anson’s suggestion. We have always talk about cooking Rocko to make a dog meat hot pot. Let us enjoy a big feast is better than letting Rocko faces his final fate in SPCA.

Today I went to Whistler again. Yes, two days in a row. Quite a record. This time I went to ski instead of snowmobile. Best of all, I don’t have drive. I can get a ride from a friend at work. We have a very small group today, just three of us and some friends of my friend from Seattle. The snow condition is ok, but not as good as last week. There is no new snow fall in this week, therefore the snow is high packed. My friends are hard-core skier. We had quite a few black diamond runs today. In the one of the run, I am completely whited out. My flys all over the place and slided down in 360 for at least a hundred meters. Fortunately, I didn’t look too bad since my friend share the same fate with me. It is a good day of fun, althought my skill is getting better, I have to work more on my strength. At near the end of the day, I know I should be able to do those runs, but I lack the strength to bounce around the bumps.