Stephen Donner's Weblog

Just a self-reminder to check out Mere Christianity from the library, and finish reading it. From what I recall, it has some really sound, logical arguments (and is thus refreshing and intriguing).

C.S. Lewis was a great author and theologian on many accounts (although many folks have expressed bemusement at his sci-fi trilogy).

I've always been interested in WAN optimization/performance, so Citrix's client-side WANScaler captures my interest; press release. It won't debut until June, but I'm sure it'll do quite well once it does; according to their website, it "accelerate[s] application performance across wide area networks (WAN) by an average of 5x to 30x, and up to 300x at peak compression efficiency."

The season three finale of Lost was so, so lame.

(Spoilers follow.)

1. No Smokey? (Well, I guess in the form of Walt.)
2. No hint at the toe-statue? I'm sorry, but a shocking ending without precept does not make for a good cliffhanger.
3. The writing was horrible: Mikhail took a SPEARGUN to the chest, survives, and manages to detonate a grenade UNDER WATER...
4. Of course The Others weren't really going to kill Sayid, Sawyer, et al. We "need them" for future seasons (why write it in, then?)
5. Locke's actions at the end--by the radio tower--just don't make sense, unless there are some more explanations that will come later.
6. No more cool stuff with Jacob?

The whole thing just felt uneven. Last year's season finale was awesome; it had a good flow.

Keep milking it for the remaining three years, Cuse and Lindelof.

Sigh.

So long, Veronica Mars and friends, your show will be missed--by me, at least.

Wow!

Pandora's UI upgrade is sweet; it also feels like it's lighter--i.e. uses less memory--, but that could just be because I just reloaded its page, and Firefox tends to keep its MP3s in memory for quite some time.

Hearing about the activities and personified desires of "The Algorithm" is wearing me out.

Of grades and graduation...

After a harrowing semester, in which I read twenty-five books and wrote numerous papers, I have emerged--relatively unscathed--and am happy to report that everything came out superbly in the end:

Spring 2007 South Bend

ENG-L 354 AMERICAN LITERATURE SINCE 1914 3.00 A
ENG-L 390 CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 3.00 A+
ENG-L 450 SEMINAR: BRITISH & AM AUTHORS 3.00 A
ENG-W 303 WRITING POETRY 3.00 A-

I graduated last night, finally!; photos here. The ones I've posted so far are only a smattering of what my father took. The remainder will trickle in in the coming days. Enjoy! Also, a more general, nicer set of IUSB photos on Flickr.

I'm now going to take some much-needed time off, in order that I might relax and begin thinking seriously about prospective employment. Feel free to send me tantalizing positions, but don't expect any commitment on my part until at least the 25th of this month.

Thanks!

Zedo and its "pop-under" ads must die.

Currently reading--and enjoying--Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Flanders Panel.

All finished!

Last paper, ever, here.