I do have a “Learn German” computer program that lets you speak into a microphone and it grades you on your pronunciation, so that has helped a bit. That said, it’s super embarrassing to use and I’ve probably only messed with it two or three times. (Sad! I wanted it really bad when I first got it but we didn’t have a microphone for our computer when I was in high school.)

As far as languages go, I took a year of Spanish in high school but was thwarted by the Worst Teach Ever in the second half of the year (my lovely, wonderful initial Spanish teacher went on maternity leave) and learned nothing. Or if I learned anything, it was idiotic and useless like “the elephants eat peanut soup.” I taught myself how to say “I am a piece of toast” in the sixth grade and that remains the only Spanish phrase I can reliably recite.

I also took an “Afternoon Academy” class (a simple, after-school program for elementary-age children) for French when I was probably seven years old. About all I remember is how to count to ten, and that we ate cheese and bread in class.

So! I am very excited. I don’t really have a use for learning German, I suppose, but I would love to know it nonetheless. My first class is on March 31 so I will definitely post about my progress. Squee!

To begin, Daniel is all better. He took the next day off of work to recuperate and felt better stomach-wise and then promptly came down with a cold. He’s still snuffly, but he’s feeling okay now, which is awesome.

My parents flew in Thursday evening and we spent a lot of time walking back and forth between their bed & breakfast and our apartment and the grocery store and whatnot. I had a bit of a shock when we looked at their room and I realized there was only one bed – they somehow failed to tell me that my two younger brothers would be staying with us instead of them. Ha ha ha.

The portfolio show went very well. I think some of the business people wrote me off because I already have a job, but right now that’s sort of okay with me. I was mostly there as a formality anyway (it’s required for graduation) and the purpose is to make some contacts, which I think I did. A lot of people were inquiring about freelancing, which I haven’t totally ruled out but ye gods I am not interested in more work right now. My goal is to make the next two weeks as painless as possible before I start full time the 1st of the year, and I can’t see freelancing helping that at all. I had a really good response to my branding/identity (if you’re listed as a friend on Flickr you’ve probably already seen a preview of my business card) and lots of people told me it was very nicely done. My department director told me I’ve done the department proud.

My cousin, her husband, and their baby showed up unexpectedly! I sent them the mass “I am graduating” email but didn’t exactly expect them to drop by even though they don’t live very far away, but I’m so glad they did. I hadn’t met the baby yet and he’s so cute! Very serious (didn’t crack a smile the whole time I saw him) but adorable and incredibly well-behaved. I’ll see them again around Christmas.

I got to see my friend Keith! And Ben H and Ben D and Stacey and other graduated-types I haven’t seen in a while. My family got to meet all the people that meant a lot to me in school, especially Chris and Angie. I’m really going to miss both of them.

Graduation also went well. I graduated with honors! I hadn’t even thought about it until I was checking in at the ceremony location and received some silver cords, and some time later noticed that not everyone had them. The president of the school mispronounced my last name when he was recognizing the honors students, but oh well. People tend to try to make it sound a lot more elegant than it actually is – you can either emphasize the second syllable and make it sound refined, or emphasize the first and sound backwoods-ish. It’s the backwoods sound you’re going for, and I think people don’t want to offend so they try the other way first. It bothers me but I’m used to it. The guy announcing names as we walked across the stage said it correctly so I think that’s what counts.

The speakers had varying degrees of interestingness. The school president’s speech was about some 16th century Indian philosopher whose name I can’t recall, and it was meant to be inspiring. The keynote speaker was some guy from Germany who was one of those “I’m young and wildly successful” types who spent the last X number of years sleeping on floors and working for free to get into the companies he wanted to work for. He talked a lot about himself and made several references to purple Speedos. I think all the parents loved him and the graduates were sort of lukewarm. The student speaker’s speech was the best because it was short and to-the-point, and wasn’t pretentious or boring.

The weekend was very hectic and was not much of a break before going back to work on Monday. I got to learn about 401(k) plans at work and have to figure out what I want to do to plan for retirement. RETIREMENT. That is so far off my radar I can’t even begin to describe it. I know I’m going to enroll, but I have to decide how much I’m going to contribute and what sort of plan I want to use. I understand very little about my own finances so this is all new to me. I think it stems from being bad at math. On the whole I am very good with my money, I just don’t get things like investing and consolidating and financing. I can’t even imagine owning stock. So! Fun with finances.

I’m not sure what else to talk about. There was so much that went on this past week that I can’t even begin to describe it. I’m a college graduate. I have a job. I feel old. I know I’m not, but I feel like I am.

I know I’ve been really crap about even being online lately, and for that I apologize. Really though, after spending over 9 hours a day on the computer, the last thing I want to do is come home and get on the computer again, so my online presence has suffered as of late. I finally caught back up on my Qbee stuff on Sunday, and even participated in the Christmas activity. My one-year Qbee anniversary is coming up (if it hasn’t already passed – all I know is that it’s sometime in December) and I feel bad that I’d been slacking, but I think I’ll be able to keep up now that I’ll only have work to worry about.

Honestly, the thing I’m looking forward to most about being done with school is the lack of homework. I go to work, I do my job, and I leave it there until I come back to work again. I’m not required to finish stuff at home on my own time, unpaid. This makes me indescribably happy.

I don’t have an introspective or particularly worthwhile note to end this post on, but I’d just like to say thank you to all of you who sent me an email or a message over the last couple of weeks. It means a lot to me.

*throws cap in the air*

Today was my first day of my last term and I am exhausted. I can already tell it’s going to be rough, but I am thanking my lucky stars that I only have school (and my minimal work schedule) to deal with this term. I can’t imagine being one of those people who work 60 hour weeks and then take three classes to try to graduate sooner. I met someone today that did that exact thing last term, and good lord I do not know how he was still alive talking to me.

Sooo… apparently I was a bit mistaken about my GPA earlier, as I received a letter Saturday informing me that it was actually a 3.8 for last term, and I have been named to the Summer Session 2006 Dean’s Honor Roll. Yay me!

I learned something new about Photoshop today. Never, ever use the Brightness/Contrast palette. It basically wrecks your image. Try opening a photo, and then open your Histogram window, and then test out using the brightness/contrast while checking out your histogram. See all those vertical gaps? Not good. Learn something new every day. I also learned how to “properly” make a PDF out of a Word document. You go to File Print, and check “print to file,” choose “Adobe PDF” as the printer, and go to – either properties or advanced, I don’t remember – and UNcheck “don’t export fonts for PDF.” Then hit okay, and it’ll have you save some weird file extension. Do that, and then open Adobe Distiller and drop that weird file extension into it, and it will automatically create a PDF for you. Seemed like a lot of extra work to me, that’s for sure, but apparently that’s the “proper” way to do it, according to one instructor.

Commence freaking out. I will be done in less than three months. EEP.

Just now, on a whim, I decided to check my grades and found that they had actually been posted already. I ended up with two As, one A-, and one B+. Definitely better than I was expecting, especially for the personal branding/identity class (the B+) considering the instructor really never gives As. This leaves my GPA at a solid 3.7 for this term, and 3.6 cumulative. Yay!

It is currently 4am and I am still awake. I will probably still be awake for a while, at which time I will have to be up so I can take a shower and get ready for school. I did fake-snooze a bit for about two hours a while ago, so it’s not like I’m running on no sleep, just very, very little. Enough so that you can keep going, but not enough so that you feel rested at all.

God this project is a nightmare. I still have to print some things, but my printer is… well, it’s dumb, and I have no paper, and Daniel’s printer is neither dumb nor out of paper, but it’s in the bedroom and he is sound asleep. Printers are loud, and I’d feel bad waking him up at four o’clock in the morning for printing purposes. I suppose I’ll have to though. I need to get this done.

I think I might be coming down with something but I sincerely hope I’m not. My throat has just been feeling odd lately, sort of dry but not really sore. I had better not be getting sick. :o I don’t have time for sickness.

Side note: Why, oh why, did iTunes change its pretty green music note to a blue one?