Phil’s Blog

[NOTE:  This article was written in the summer of 2009 for inclusion in a Computing Science Student Society newsletter.  It has since been edited and the newsletter has been compiled.  As of right now, it has not, however, yet seen the light of day.  Here is my article, unedited...]

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you are either a Computing Science student, interested in becoming a Computing Science student, a student in something linked to Computing Science, or associated peripherally with Computing Science somehow. Either that, or you needed some reading material for the next few minutes. Regardless, congratulations on making it this far.

However, it is amazing how many Computing Science students, specially upon entering the faculty, don’t really know what Computing Science actually is. I’d venture a guess that most people associate computer programming with Computing Science, but that is really not what Computing Science is. As a matter of fact, the computer is just a tool sometimes (not even close to always) used in the study of Computing Science.

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

– Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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Roxy and I had a rather interesting morning.  Rather than type it out again, here are the facts as reported to Animal Control after their visit:

Letter to Animal Control Officer (all identifying details have been removed.  Obviously, these were in the original letter!

Closeup of Roxy’s wound (I should have spread it out so we could more clearly see how deep it was)

Roxy’s wound (so you can see the location)

Loose dog after I went knocking on doors 1

Loose dog after I went knocking on doors 2

Loose dog after I went knocking on doors 3

Loose dog after I went knocking on doors 4

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Yes, it’s been waaayyy too long, so I’m now buckling down and writing my recap of last two semesters ago.  As you may or may not recall, I dubbed last summer my Summer of Uselessness due to the courses I was taking.  Here’s the wrapup:

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For those who wanted pictures (click on any to enlarge).

The right side. The very long throttle cable will be replaced as soon as the new one comes in, creating nicer and cleaner routing and eliminating the possibility for kinking in the triple-trees.

The left side. Sorry for the poor lighting, but I was too lazy to turn the bike around. Imagine an even blacker version of the right side.

Phil

As some of you know, I used to be a Harley-Davidson mechanic.  Over 3 years ago now, I finally quit and basically left the business altogether.

Since then, my own bike sat unattended in my garage, as I was basically burnt out on the whole wrenching thing.  Lately, I decided it was time to get back to it, on my own terms.  I decided to at least set up a small home shop for myself.  I bought a compressor and bike lift, and started setting up my other stuff.  Here’s where I’m at right now (click on any image to enlarge):

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Sit down and grab a beverage, this will take a little while.

It’s time (I say ‘again’ to make it sound like I’ve been blogging a long time, as opposed to a few days now) to give my impressions of the courses I took this semester.

Here they are, in increasing order of enjoyment (or decreasing order of annoyance, depending on the course):

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This sign was posted in the window of the entrance door to Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus (the entrance from the parking lot, leading onto the mezzanine level):

Dumber

This was either posted by SFU or by Surrey Central Mall.  One of these is an institution of higher learning.  The other is a business dealing with the public.  Should either of these really ever use “U” instead of “you”?  Perhaps using that ‘holistic approach to English writing’ which they are currently using in high schools is a bad idea.

I finally set up a blog.  Why?  Because I can.  I can’t guarantee much content, or even interesting content, but I may as well use this domain for something.