The GRE

I took the GRE this morning. I survived. I marginally conquered, even. I didn't rock its socks off, but I did well enough to not hinder my chances at getting accepted into an engineering graduate school, and that's what's really at stake. As I was studying for the test, my primary concern was with my vocabulary, but I soon discovered there were a handful of mathematical challenges that I've forgotten how to tackle. For example, what's the sum of the integers between 1 and 50? Normally, I would write a simple, single-line BeanShell script to tell me, but without the aid of scripting or GRE practice, I would have inevitably embarked upon the time consuming, brute force path. Now I know that you just take the average of the first and last integers (25.5 in this case) times the number of integers (which is equal to the last number minus the first, plus one--50). Allow me verify my standard and new found approaches with some interactive BeanShell action:

bsh % t = 0; for(i = 1; i <= 50; ++i) t+=i; print(t); bsh % bsh % 1275 bsh % print(25.5 * 50.0); 1275.0

1275. Nice. (By the way, did you know that a 30°-60°-90° triangle's sides will have lengths proportional to 1, 2, and √3?). Another area of concern I didn't initially take into consideration was stamina. This became apparent to me as I ran through a practice test, and was verified on the actual test itself. I was struggling to stay focused towards the end. Maybe my low stamina is attributable towards my disengagement from scholarly pursuits over the past five years--or maybe I wore myself out by listening to too many of DragonForce's 200bpm shred-filled epics. In any case, thank God for getting me through this and onto the next challenges that await.

It Hurts to Save

Maybe my and Katie's frugality coupled with our fiscal responsibility isn't a good fit for this country right now. The Federal Reserve cut the prime interest rate yesterday after slowly inching it up over the past year or so. Not surprisingly, oil and the Euro are at all-time US Dollar highs, and gold has shot up as well. Heck, at the Wendy's drive through the other day, a Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe set me back a buck nineteen. A dollar's not what it used to be. So why am I saving USD again? Maybe I should convert my dollars to something else before things get even more out of hand.

Daughtry vs. White

According to the Top Album section of my my.yahoo portal, two of the current best selling rock albums are The White Stripe's Icky Thump and Daughtry's self-titled record. Before I go on, allmusic.com tells me the band name is technically DAUGHTRY--all capitalized--to distinguish the band from its front man, former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry. Apparently Chris felt he'd get more credibility by being in a rock band. I think he should have differentiated his band name from his surname with slightly less subtlety than mere capitalization, though. Maybe a band name like DAUGHTRY SUCKS or DAUGH-FAIL would not only provide more distinction but a more accurate indication of the type of music they play. I cringe every time Daughtry's "What I Want" comes on, but I force myself to listen to it so I can justify my scorn. It should suffice it to say that the chorus hook is "What I want, what I need..."; that's the lyrical equivalent of the literary "It was a dark and stormy night..." In stark contrast to "What I Want" is "Icky Thump." I frequently head over to its video at vids.myspace.com just to listen to it since Pandora doesn't throw it into my rotation frequently enough. Sure, it's a beefed up "Seven Nation Army," but when your rockin' originates from your heart instead of from a highly paid producer's music market expertise, it doesn't matter.

The Master Plan

I'm considering getting my Masters of Engineering. I've bounced the idea off Katie, our parents, Pastor Steve, even, and they've all felt that it would be a good thing to do. I find that reassuring and encouraging. I'm not sure why they think I should get a Masters, but here are my reasons:

• To Justify My "Engineer" Title: Even though I'm a Computer Science graduate from UVA's School of Engineering and my job title is "Software Engineer," I don't feel like a true Engineer. True Engineers apply math and science to create value-added products. I use no math or science whatsoever. I'm leaning towards a degree in Systems Engineering, which is admittedly not as true of a discipline as mechanical or electrical engineering, but it should make me more of an Engineer than just Computer Science.
• To Increase My Employment Potential: I have no intentions to leave my job, but just in case there happens to be a particularly turbulent recession (or depression) as the US transitions from a consumer-based to a production-based nation, I will want to have a job. Traditionally during recessions/depressions, the more education you have, the better chance you have at getting/keeping a job.
• To Increase My Compensation Potential: Chances are that with higher education I could earn more pay than I would with just a Bachelor's degree. One of my goals is to allow Katie to be a full-time mom, meaning our family would just get by on my income. Being able to earn more pay would, obviously, help towards that goal.
• To Help the USA: In order for the US economy to be truly strong, it will need to produce more, and that's going to require engineers.

As of now, I'm planning on appling to the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program. I'm scheduled to take my GREs by the end of this month. I just need to find some referrals.