Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday I also gave out the list of possible topics for the alternative research of those who did not go on the field trip. They were divided into overlapping constellation depictions (one per student), illustrations of previous or future topics (two per student) or video clips (one per two students), such as the first scene in “1492” or the last scene in “Men in Black”.

It was like a draft pick, and my first class was lucky that they had everything to choose from. I told them that they had two weeks to complete this, and that pictures downloaded or scanned had to be submitted on a diskette first to be approved before being put on an acetate transparency.

In the afternoon my special class student in programming went to the department to tell me of another revision in his last program. I cut him short by saying I had already graded it.

In my other programming class, they had a more difficult time with this exam that the last one - even though it was similar in the sense that I gave two programs they were supposed to analyze. Besides completing the output tables, they also had to give the purpose of some parts of the program. There were three errors on the second program (serves me right for rushing it last Saturday morning), but I didn’t give them the correction. I’ll just grade their answers based on both what the program actually does and what they believe it is supposed to do.

My thesis advisee called up to ask when I would be free. I told him when my classes ended at 330pm. He was actually there when I arrived. He asked if he could pass up doing the Moon-planet occultation and the Moon-path tracing. I declined, saying it was an important part of his work. He said that he believes he has done enough for an acceptable effort. I wanted to remind him that if the panel believed it was sufficient, they would not have added to the objectives of his program. I know he’s just apprehensive about not finishing in time for the end of the term, even though I already told him how easy it was to complete given everything he’s already programmed correctly so far. He even mentioned something about shadows, which doesn’t come into occultation at all. If he probably worked in school instead of at home and I could see just how many hours a week he worked, I would have a more realistic gauge of how he uses his time, especially since he doesn’t have any more subjects. As it stands I believe he could have finished this last term or earlier.

Finally I told him he could ask his panelists. This time he took down their schedule and he’ll ask them himself instead of leaving them notes. If it means he’ll be in school more instead of just showing up when he’s ready, fine with me.

Last Sunday my computer science thesis advisees asked for a meeting Monday night. They are actually working in a computer lab in the Science building, where my college batch-mates and I had spent an overnight during freshman year finishing a programming assignment. Now my advisees, one of who is the younger sister of one of my classmates (six years old when we were still studying) is using the room.

They asked about certain parts of their concept, dilemma and task table, such as the inclusion of asteroids, meteors and comets, whose presentation isn’t really all that dynamic or in need of much calculations.

I actually have higher expectations of their work that the other one.