Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

A continuation on the benefits analysis request of the undergraduate students of the College of Computer Science doing their thesis in astronomy software: I told them I wasn’t available for a meeting for the foreseeable future, so could they first explain to me what exactly was benefits analysis (of which I only have a vague idea) through email and maybe we could iron everything out through there. So far I have received no reply.

But now I’m really beginning to see the differences of the requirements of a science research to one for the CCS.

For a science research, especially an experimental topic, at the end of the prescribed period of following procedures and recording measurements, ANY results are good, as long as it is accompanied by good assessment of the data and followed up by a well-thought-out recommendation. This is, after all, what the chairman said about my previous thesis advisee’s work, which, ironically, was also a computer program.

For a computer science thesis, the program has to work the way it was supposed to work. My former co-teacher Nap’s recent thesis, for example, had to correctly identify the different soccer robots based on their distinct color patterns from a real time top view camera feed. So while he couldn’t get that to work, he knew he wasn’t finished.

And for computer aided instruction software, there are very strict points or limits of determining if a program is effective or not. So after finishing their first “draft”, they have to let the students use it, evaluate if they have learned, and if not, go back to the first step and change parts (if not all) of the program.

As for the freshmen-upperclassmen acquaintance party, it is slowly shaping up to be like another talent night. The announcement that Student Affairs Head Ronnie posted about band players being needed for that event got a very warm reception. There are students whom some teachers heard are going just because they are planning on playing.

And it also seems like it won’t be just the students who will be on stage. Another English teacher last Friday asked us if we were going to perform. Maila said flat out no. I said I would if Maila would.

What I’m wondering now is if all those parlor games will still push through, or will the whole program be revamped? Will there still be two meals that will have to be prepared? Where exactly will the tree-planting fit into the flow of activities now?

It seems there will also be a faculty-staff sports fest in July. The heads of the four teams had their draft pick last Thursday, which they also told us about on Friday.

I guess that means that besides the Badminton Club trainings presided over by my cousin on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, there may be other days when we will be training for badminton, as well as other sports.

Speaking of which, the administration has now justified the charging of fees for using the badminton courts by students, saying that their sports fee in the tuition payment is all going into making the new covered basketball court, which is going over what was once the make-shift paintball field for the open campus and college fun day last March.

It’s still a small price to pay compared to the memberships they have in public establishments, and these courts are more or less exclusive to school personnel’s use.