Ahoy, mates!

So, do tell:

Where’s the best place to live in Seattle? Which are the best schools (public or private (for the children under 18))? Is it really so very rainy or is that just an urban legend?

I have reason to believe this may be in my (relatively) distant future:

http://depts.washington.edu/bioe/programs/phd/phd.html

In the eighth grade I wore a pastel pink blazer, a la Miami Vice, to my Catholic confirmation. Crockett and Tubbs popularized the look and it was socially acceptable for a young man to don such garb. Those days have passed I guess, but two young men stepped up and took the heat off a 9th grader who wore pink to his new school.

The Chronicle Herald has the story.

I registered for the last time last week, shelling out the bones for my last quarter of graduate school. Three months, and then I’m done and then I can return to the work world. Whee! Here’s hoping that post-graduation 2.0 will be as tumultuous as post-graduation 1.0. Here’s what I’m taking my last quarter in graduate school:

Strategic Information Initiatives
Studies and applies strategic information initiatives within an organization, including: readiness assessment, organizational mandates, information inventories, content management, information audits, and information architecture initiatives. Focuses on building business cases for and leading information initiatives in organizations.

Stakeholders, Information, and Technology
Capstone experience. Addresses system integration and the increasing demand to apply a broad range of technologies to the information needs of diverse user groups during the implementation of comprehensive information systems across an organization. Encourages student-organized individual/team projects.

For my capstone I am doing a bunch of information architecture stuff for web 2.0 components of a market research intranet. It’s coolio.

Independent Study or Research in Information Management
Supervised independent study or research.

I’m learning Ruby on Rails. It’s bomb.com/hot.

All I can think of most days in finding a job. But not to fear! The great job hunt of 2007 has begun, and I’ve already had several promising conversations, including one with the worldwide leader of something or other here in Seattle. (Hint: not software, coffee, or airplanes.)

As of tonight, I’m done with classes for this quarter. It was my most enjoyable quarter so far — all the classes were, at times, intellectually stimulating, and one was consistently oustanding. I think I’ll get good grades, and my face never broke out from the stress. I wrote the best paper of my life, and I’m considering trying to publish two articles.

My change management course this quarter was the best class I’ve taken in graduate school. It’s one of the best courses I’ve taken in college (and I had some amazing undergraduate professors). The reason I’m going out of my way to state this is that my professor is 27 years old. 27! Born in 1979. He’s published seven books and over 100 journal articles. And he makes most of the other faculty members — many of whom who have been doing this for over 20 years — look like complete amateurs.

Crazy.

My mom is a tutor and has a new website. To help Google along, here’s a shameless plug/link thingie:

Karen’s In-Home Tutoring is the best tutoring business in all of Washougal, Camas, and SW Washington.

Do your work, oh search engine overlord.

Here’s what I’m taking:

• Information and the Management of Change–”Practical application of the critical roles and aspects of information and information processes in the management of organizational change. Topics include organization learning, knowledge management as a process, business process change, change project management, business/competitive intelligence, benchmarking, and best practices.”
• Fieldwork in Information Management–My internship, being done at a large software company in a wealthy city near Seattle.
• Finance and Accounting Foundations for Information Professional–”Introduction to financial accounting, including the principles of double-entry accounting, balance sheets, income, and cash flow statements. Covers key financial ratios and their use for various analytical purposes, along with the elements of a financial plan or budget.”
• Foundations of Organization Information Assurance–”The course provides a conceptual overview of Information Assurance (IA) and what a qualified Information Assurance specialist should master. IA can be described as enterprise-wide computer security. This terminology has evolved from the concept of “computer security” as dependence on networks has altered our concepts of information system security to include, not only technology, but policies, procedures and the human factor, as well.” This one really excites me because it is the first in three courses that lead to a certificate in information assurance–useful because the course meets the training standards described in CNSS no. 4011 and 4014 and is offered under the auspices of the NSA Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the UW. Cool.

My program is the awesomest.

Burt Reynolds uses saran wrap is the source of all nougat makes your momma’s eyes bleed and gives her hives filled with Mr. Pibb swell to the sizeof honeydew melons get surly and hostile when you lather them with KY jelly is good to use on a dry ass.

I was very bored in class on July 13, 2000.  Ahh, the things you find when you’re getting ready to move…

Sorry, fools. We need some help with a group project. Any of you that have an extra five minutes, please fill out this survey and email it back to me. Thanks.

I just posted this on MySpace as well.

———

I wrote and submitted my first draft on my MySpace study this weekend, and already received comments back from my professor, the sum of which amounted to “That sounds good. Go right ahead. Very interesting.” Ha. I don’t think he gets it at all.

To extend the draft, I did a fair amount of reading yesterday for the lit review portion, which consists mainly of danah boyd’s work, a few other papers on social networking at large, and a few articles on the great MySpace scare of ‘06.

I think the research has gone to my grey matter. Like some sort of recursive joke played by my brain, last night I had a dream where someone new in my life, whom I’ve been spending a great amount of time with, added me to her top 8. And in my dream it meant something.

What is ridiculous about this is it stems not from any actual desire to be added to her top 8, but from a previous dating experience, where the girl obsessed about her top 8, ranking all of her friends by order of importance to her, pubicly articulating her preferences. This caused me some anxiety, because now everyone could see where I ranked in her life. I could tell, just from a glance at her MySpace page, if I was doing well, or if there were others ahead of me. Not that I was in competition with other men. But there is a difference in top 8 behavior amongst “boyfriends,” those you are dating, and those you have simply been out with, so I could glean something about her feelings. Frankly, I would have rather she never added me to her top 8, because once added suddenly I was in a competition I never wanted to be in. Lame.

Anyway, I told D about my dream this morning, and as some sort of sick joke, she added me to her top 8. Thankfully, she could give a shit about the top 8, so I’m spared any sort of anxiety. It’s just a laugh now.

But this brings up bigger issues, doesn’t it? Top 8 means something; when people formulate their top 8, there is a methodology to their processes, and they think through it. Who is important to me? Why is this person important? What can I gain from making a public connection to this person? Will this person top 8 in me in turn? Special status is given to special people: “best friends,” partners, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses, family members.

People stopping by a profile for the first time might look at the top 8, or even the top 1 or 2, and try to discern from that who the REALLY important people are to this person. “Is number one a boyfriend? Does that match the relationship status? Does the other person feel the same way?”

Those who don’t play by the top 8 rules very often fall into one of two camps: 1) They simply don’t care and never change their top 8, accepting whoever lands there; 2) Those who, in an act of defiance (sometimes blogged or bulletined about), use arbitrary criteria for selecting their top 8, perhaps putting only bands or fakesters (an old friendster term) in the top spots.

What is also interesting is when people make explicit reference to their omission from, or request they be placed in, the top 8. The status the top 8 brings means so much that they’ll actually request placement, rather than accept the natural order of things, or try to jockey for top 8 position through political maneuvering, (profile comments, picture comments, blog comments, etc.)

What does top 8 status get you? Esteem in the eyes of others by being affiliated with the person putting you in the top 8. It’s the high school popularity contest all over again, though with a limited number of spots. Now, only if we could aggregate top 8 number across the entire social network or within limited social circles (something like vizster, but with a focus on top 8 people). That would be interesting (and telling). Are connectors (those with a disproportionately high number of legitimate contacts) also top 8 worthy? (Meaning, do those people who have a high rate of top 8 placement also have a high number of friends?)

These are things I think about. There’s enough material in MySpace for several books, I swear to God.

I did well my first quarter of grad school — straight A’s (or the UW’s equivalent) — and I thought I was going to sail through my Master’s. However, as many of you know, I struggled last quarter, due in part to my gerbil dying mid-quarter and a demanding curriculum that taxed my feeble, depleted brain.

I got my grades earlier this week. Oops. I guess I should’ve actually written those terms papers.

As it turns out grad students have to stay above a certain GPA to remain in grad school. But my cumulative GPA has dipped below that threshold, and I’m now on academic probation, pending a faculty review (and after passing that, having to then raise my GPA). Mathematically, it’s looking near impossible.

So, two quarters of grad school down . . . one good, one terrible. Rather than prolong what looks to be an inevitable expulsion, I’ve decided to drop out of grad school, effective immediately. To stave off hunger and eviction, I’ve taken a job going door-to-door for WashPIRG. Anyone want to help the environment?