Marks back!
Class is over, and I have my marks back! (having no exams helps a fair bit!)
I have to say, overall things went pretty well. Most surprising is the “Ethical Soap-dish” project; I “blew it out of the water” (prof’s words) and scored full marks on what is apparently the most frustrating assignment in the entire design degree…. Uh, go me? The prof is keeping the paper around to show students in future years, which he warns may make me a bit infamous; the irony is not lost on me as I’ll apparently be best remembered for making a simple, sustainable, physical and natural solution when outside of this ONE project I’m the technology guy, no questions asked.
The research paper was well received, if not as well as the soap dish; apparently the research part was down pact (to which I give my humblest appreciation to Jen, whose help with this is the only reason this paper came together in the first place) but the paper lacked ‘reflection’. *shrug* I could spend another 20 pages (what he suggested would be necessary) to really make my thesis shine / perhaps even publish the damn thing, but ultimately it brought my mark for the big human factors project up from a 54% to an 88%. For those of you who don’t remember, the group mate (3 person team) who was responsible for the research component mislead us, and then plagiarized a handful of websites at the last minute… poorly. Only reason she wasn’t expelled was because it was a group project, but we all got a zero until finishing the research paper make-up assignment. I don’t know if she ever wrote her own paper, but it’s done, and my average is no longer hemorrhaging; that bloody assignment is worth over 50% of the term… (and the research part 50% of that…)
The kid’s project; 100%... which is nice, but seeing how visualization is what I do on a daily basis…. I did get a cute little thank you card from the kid though; I’m amused that her ‘favorite part’ was “making it blue”. O.o
Portfolio part 2… turns out the prof doesn’t have access to a computer fast enough to run my portfolio-on-harddrive solution. Damnit. All that work for naught, and had I known, I could have padded it a little further… “Did I mention that it also cures cancer?” Perhaps not, but still! Regardless, he apparently doesn’t “have any more marks to give” so it wouldn’t matter in the first place… curse you lack of bonus points! He kept saying that I should have no problem getting a job at BioWare with this portfolio, which again, the irony is not lost on me… 5 years ago I would have killed to be in that position; today I hand the little harddrive back to Tom and quietly archive the portfolio. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a plan B though (or C)…
As for the practicum, I don’t think getting that “+” will be an issue… the second half of this practicum saw wide scale use of the tech developed in the first half, as well as the prototype trainee centric industrial project. The fact that I maintained the offer of free PureLight lighting / publishing for a project, doesn’t hurt either :)
Think that covers the end of class… it’s been a week now, and does it ever feel good! Like a mountain off my back. Dad took me to lunch over at Wasabi’s - its odd, but that almost felt more official than the rest of this bullshit. I suppose they still have to mail me the all important piece of paper, but for what it counts, it’s finally over! I’m happy that I left with a positive note; I was sure I’d let it slip and just get enough grades to pass… which considering the amount of work going on, would probably have been the sane choice.
… and now back to work!
I have to say, overall things went pretty well. Most surprising is the “Ethical Soap-dish” project; I “blew it out of the water” (prof’s words) and scored full marks on what is apparently the most frustrating assignment in the entire design degree…. Uh, go me? The prof is keeping the paper around to show students in future years, which he warns may make me a bit infamous; the irony is not lost on me as I’ll apparently be best remembered for making a simple, sustainable, physical and natural solution when outside of this ONE project I’m the technology guy, no questions asked.
The research paper was well received, if not as well as the soap dish; apparently the research part was down pact (to which I give my humblest appreciation to Jen, whose help with this is the only reason this paper came together in the first place) but the paper lacked ‘reflection’. *shrug* I could spend another 20 pages (what he suggested would be necessary) to really make my thesis shine / perhaps even publish the damn thing, but ultimately it brought my mark for the big human factors project up from a 54% to an 88%. For those of you who don’t remember, the group mate (3 person team) who was responsible for the research component mislead us, and then plagiarized a handful of websites at the last minute… poorly. Only reason she wasn’t expelled was because it was a group project, but we all got a zero until finishing the research paper make-up assignment. I don’t know if she ever wrote her own paper, but it’s done, and my average is no longer hemorrhaging; that bloody assignment is worth over 50% of the term… (and the research part 50% of that…)
The kid’s project; 100%... which is nice, but seeing how visualization is what I do on a daily basis…. I did get a cute little thank you card from the kid though; I’m amused that her ‘favorite part’ was “making it blue”. O.o
Portfolio part 2… turns out the prof doesn’t have access to a computer fast enough to run my portfolio-on-harddrive solution. Damnit. All that work for naught, and had I known, I could have padded it a little further… “Did I mention that it also cures cancer?” Perhaps not, but still! Regardless, he apparently doesn’t “have any more marks to give” so it wouldn’t matter in the first place… curse you lack of bonus points! He kept saying that I should have no problem getting a job at BioWare with this portfolio, which again, the irony is not lost on me… 5 years ago I would have killed to be in that position; today I hand the little harddrive back to Tom and quietly archive the portfolio. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a plan B though (or C)…
As for the practicum, I don’t think getting that “+” will be an issue… the second half of this practicum saw wide scale use of the tech developed in the first half, as well as the prototype trainee centric industrial project. The fact that I maintained the offer of free PureLight lighting / publishing for a project, doesn’t hurt either :)
Think that covers the end of class… it’s been a week now, and does it ever feel good! Like a mountain off my back. Dad took me to lunch over at Wasabi’s - its odd, but that almost felt more official than the rest of this bullshit. I suppose they still have to mail me the all important piece of paper, but for what it counts, it’s finally over! I’m happy that I left with a positive note; I was sure I’d let it slip and just get enough grades to pass… which considering the amount of work going on, would probably have been the sane choice.
… and now back to work!