Dysmey Blog Archives > Graduation

Graduation

It was an eventful weekend. My niece Staci graduated this past Saturday with a social work degree. She got her degree when identified as Staci West-Nelson. That was the name that was read off the card she gave, and I would not have found her without that, for I could not find a copy of the commencement program for myself. The graduation ceremony itself was so long. It was not due to the presenting of diplomas, for there are not as many graduates in summer as there are in spring. We had to listen to the long-winded commencement lecture about sociolinguistics. Thank you, sir, but I am already aware that languages die, just as new ones arise, already the speaker does not say this out front. Why do people talk about the death of languages and cultures as if the Apocalypse is about to come? Why can't they just leave that sort of talk to the churches? I will not comment on the closing speech, except that the gee-whiz attitude towards technology does us no good when all the latest technical advances are now being done overseas. If technological progress here in this country is being lead by corporations instead of consumers (which means it proceeds at a snail's pace), making Japan and Korea the world leaders in technology, then we have no right to such an attitude. Anyway, all of my family showed, including myself. My folks, my sisters and my brother (Staci's stepfather) were in the same section of Worthen Arena as I was. But I found this out later: They were sitting nearer the floor; I was up near the metal cheap seats; my brother was up there, too, but I did not see him anywhere. Nor did I find my folks or other relatives anywhere after the graduation. (I did find one of the student assistants from my unit at the Library. He graduated with a B.A.) After looking in vain from among the surging mob, I went to the Library for a bit, then ate at the Olive Garden before going home. This afternoon I bought a chest of drawers at Lowe's and put it together. The assembly was, like that of the TV desk, a project in itself, only more so. The chest was heavier and more complex: Five drawers of various sizes inside a chest one meter tall with adjustable feet. It was meant for a garage, but is just as suitable for stationary, cables and other stuff in the upper room. The installation of the EPrints repository program is finished, now that the last of the bugs have been ironed out. The repository has only one item so far, a sheet about the Mac hardware in the library that I myself created. There were other test items in the other experimental repository; but there were just twenty of them, and as I am convinced that trying to add them in a way not advised by EPrints project would make a mess of the database, I will have to add them one at a time.


Posted on the Dysmey Blog on 22 August 2007.