Finally, I am officially graduated from my master degree. I have submitted my thesis to the library, got the signatures and paper done. All I have to wait for is the degree shows up in my transcript, refund two months of tuition and the convocation. In order to graduate, I have to pay $48 to bound 3 copies of my thesis. One copy for the library, one copy for the department and one copy for myself. I guess I could have saved $16 to skip my own copy, but didn’t brother.
I have applied for the post-baccalaureate diploma starting in summer, so that I can continue taking the philosophy courses. Because my identity as a graduate student, my application status is somehow a bit confusing. I became the human ball boncing between the registration office, the philosophy department, the arts department, the undergrad admission office and graduate office. Each office points me to another office when I ask for my application status. At the end of the chain, I went back to where I begin in the undergrad admission office, and found out they had pointed me in the wrong direction in the first place. I cannot simply reactivate my account, I have to submit a late application with a letter of explaination. I simply retell my story of being bounced between the offices. Hopefully, things will sorted out soon and I can register the moral theory course in the summer.
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.