Checksum Arcanius

Yesterday: 50-mile bike ride with Theo. From my place to Marymoor down to I-90, across the bridge, and back. The  ride left me destroyed; I really have a long ways to go before STP.

Thursday: 35-mile bike ride with Theo, tooling around Seattle and checking out Amazon.com’s headquarters. I start Monday!

Wednesday: Worked out with Kunlun at the IMA. My muscles were still sore from last time; he certainly is causing something to happen :-)

Tuesday: Worked out with Kunlun at the IMA. Lots of upper-body exercises followed by swimming lessons. I already know how to swim, but apparently there’s a lot to be said for good form as well. My hair was so long that it covered my eyes when swimming properly, so I got it cut.

For three years, I have watched my Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) reports slowly fill out as more and more red NOs turned to yellow IPs (in progress) and finally to green YESes. Today, for the first time, I ran a DARS report to see:

B S in Computer Engineering

Prepared for: Ryan Edward McElroy
Graduation Date: SPR/2008
Program Entry Qtr: SPR/2006
Date prepared: 6/18/08 – 01:03

** All requirements have been satisfied ***

Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering

Prepared for: Ryan Edward McElroy
Graduation Date: SPR/2008
Program Entry Qtr: SPR/2006
Date prepared: 6/18/08 – 01:03

** All requirements have been satisfied ***

That, my friends, makes it official.

Final cumulative GPA: 3.73. Cum Laude (top 10%).

Finish strong baby.

Saturday Morning: CSE Departmental Graduation. Lots of CSE friends in attendance. I won an unexpected “Undergraduate Service Award” for volunteering a lot for CSE events. Jacob Nelson won a well-deserved Bob Bandes TA award for his excellent work as a TA in CSE 467 — the 3D video card class. The presenter read one of my quotes during the presentation of the award. Christine talked to me during the reception afterwards (she was attending for/with someone else) and my mom broke her shoe, so I had to fix it. Thats the way things go sometimes.

Saturday Afternoon: UW Graduation. Quincy Jones spoke, I thought it was mostly good with a few odd places, but overall a good speech. Listening to all of the Ph.D.’s names was painfully long, but it was nice and sunny (I have the burn to prove it) and I was seated with friends so life was good. We finally got to walk and received nice diploma holders with (of course) fake diplomas in them. The ceremony lasted a little over 4.5 hours; we began queuing an hour before that. So it was a long day already.

Saturday evening: Graduation party. Lots of friends and family showed up. We had great food and I had a great time.

Now I have one week off before I start up at Amazon.com for a summer internship!

Tonight was the Bioengineering department’s 2008 graduation ceremony. It was well-attended, well-executed, and thoroughly enjoyed. :-)

Done Done Done Done Done

After more than four years with Microvision, today I submitted by two-week’s notice that I will be terminating my employment with them.

Microvision has been a great company to me, and I have learned a lot and developed significant skills through this opportunity.

I especially want to thank Dave Montague for recommending me for the position, and Rick James for hiring me and allowing me to extend what was supposed to be a 3-6 month internship into a veritable career during my undergraduate university career. It has also been great to work alongside Larry, Greg, Selso, Shai, Bijeesh, Aarti, and the rest of the software crew. I could not have asked for a better manager than Rick and I could not have asked for a nicer manager than Jari.

It was certainly the best job I have ever had, and I wish Microvision and all of its employees the very best. Thanks for all you have given me, and hopefully I was able to give enough back to make myself useful to you guys as well.