end of semester

It's the end of the semester again, with its usual highs and lows. Somehow the end of the spring semester has always tended to feel more wistful than the end of the fall. I first made this astute observation at the end of freshman year at good ol' U of I, when the golden illumination of the evening sun seemed to cast the whole campus in a quaint shade of sepia, and the voices seemed to become the more distant. I miss U of I from time to time. There was a certain sense of freedom there, a certain sense of just-right-ness that Georgia Tech so far hasn't been able to replicate. Maybe it only will once I have left. The sepia tones were beginning to show in parts of campus today, I am happy to report. They manifested at the lab for instance, where W. was the only one working away with characteristic dedication when I dropped in after my software analysis final. Speedy's desk had been cleaned up, in preparation, no doubt, for a summer spent away from Tech. A different student passed through the lab with his family at one point, no doubt eager to show his parents the spot where he spent the greater part of his day in immurement. W. says he might be in Redmond interning at Microsoft Research this summer, so we might meet up then. The professor and other students from the lab will also be coming to Seattle at some point, and W. was quick to note that the density of the professor's students - both current and former - will be quite high in the Pacific Northwest this summer. For some reason, the Largo from Chopin's Third Sonata is playing on repeat at the back of my mind. How apropos - as well as a pity, since I promised myself I wouldn't let this entry become stream of consciousness. But it's too late for that now.

The software analysis final was hard. I chewed gum with more than my usual boyish insouciance through the entire exam. I'm sure I irritated the kid sitting next to me, which pleased me not a little. Evangelist Mary, who sat on my other side, began chewing gum as well at some point. I really enjoyed this course. It was a combination of compilers theory and analytical and testing stuff. I'd almost forgotten what drew me to compilers and theoretical computer science back in the day, before the unfortunate incident with the compilers professor that I alluded to in a recent entry occurred. At any rate, the exam was such that it could either turn out to be really good or turn out to be really bad, and I wouldn't be particularly surprised by either outcome. I cracked two jokes on the exam in lieu of answers. For "What are two advantages of random testing over dynamic symbolic execution?" I answered, "We get to use a tool called Monkey," which is technically true and without a shadow of a doubt an advantage. Then at the end of the test I observed with an air of enormous significance that one could be said to use chaotic iteration during exams, chaotic iteration being a technique that involves making multiple passes over a program until certain sets under study cease to change.

I think I left U of I on a good note. I recall feeling vaguely guilty several years ago when my mom assured me that my college years would be the best years of my life. For some reason I didn't think so at the time. But now I'm relieved to find that my time at UIUC was in fact amazing. Beyond amazing, really. The dorm, the streets, the buildings - the smell of the air, both in the summer and in the fall - the running trails, the piano. Some of my finest memories were created there. Friday nights were particularly fun, even after some of our friends had graduated and we had stopped playing video games (mostly watching, in my case) or watching TV shows. You could spend Friday evenings just walking down the streets of Urbana - particularly in the off-campus residential areas, where the air was thick with the constant sound of distant parties, much like the low rumble of distant fireworks in India on Diwali. The darkness is what made the residential areas so amazing. One simply blended into the night. I had a sort of proprietary feeling toward U of I, especially toward the end of my time there. I felt in some way a part of the collective consciousness of the school, whereas at Tech I feel rather like a visitor on most days - just a touch out of place.