Paper. Done. Guh.

My linguistics paper is finally done. If you want to know way more than anyone needs to know about connections between Breton, Welsh, and Gaulish, look no further.

9 double-spaced pages, including the figure… brain no worky. I think my favorite part was when I was able to reference 5 sources for a single sentence :o). Still, I’m glad it’s done, even it was a pretty sucky term paper.

Just today, I wished I had picked a topic like computational cladistics… I could have done something geeky and cool with computers and historical linguistics. Instead I’m stuck with Breton. Bleh.

At least now I’m free to work on all of my cool labs and final projects:

  • Use reinforcement learning to evolve a simple robot brain capable of finding “victims” in a simulate urban search and rescue environment. (CS63)
  • Create a music analysis program to generate playlists of songs that have thematic and stylistic continuity. (E127)
  • Finish a program that identifies clusters of features across a large database of images. (E127)
  • Finish a program that implements different tracking methods to get the coordinate paths of houseflies moving around in front of a camera. (E127)
  • Create a stack-based CPU, with compiler, assembler, and instruction ROM loader. (E25)
  • Finish analyzing the speed tradeoffs between compiler optimization and using MMX registers in assembly. (E25)

Good times :o). I just can’t get enough of this stuff… I do need to be a wee bit more efficient about my time usage, though. Last week I spent almost 20 hours working for the SCCS (new constitution draft, new Cygnet pages, long policy meetings). We rock, so hard. How is it already the 20th of April?

How many of you have posted a homework assignment in your LJ before?

Ode To A Superhero” from Poodle Hat by “Weird Al” Yankovic


Comments

6 responses to “Paper. Done. Guh.”

  1. I (very deliberately) did not get an lj until after I graduated, so I never had an opportunity.

    Nifty paper. You probably meant to say “Phylogeny A” instead of just Phylogeny in the middle of page 4. And I was a little confused by your description of Falc’hun’s theory — it sounded like he was saying that Gwened was Brythonic but had borrowed a bit from Gaulish, while the other dialects had not, but elsewhere you seem to say that he was suggesting actual descendance rather than a bit of borrowing. I could critique the linguistics for you, too, but you sound like you don’t want to hear it at this point. :-)

  2. There are very few good sources on Breton in English. If I read French, I would have been much better off. Basically, some of my data is a bit of a stretch, so I’m just sort of pooling the few things I could actually find. I’m not gunning for an A here, basically.

  3. Eh, you’re allowed.

    …Incidentally, “no worky!” is part of the error logged from the console when “connect to server” fails.

  4. Congratulations! Just finished my own. I have to say this was just about the most painful and unenjoyable paper experience I’ve had at Swat… my thesis was decidedly more work but somehow not quite so draining.

    I’m thinking it’s good I’m not going into historical linguistics.

  5. Heh. I’m actually not sure where I picked up the “* no worky” phrase, although I usually applying it to my brain.

    In The Emperor’s New Grove there’s a quote that involves “no touchie”, but that’s a command. I don’t think that they’re related.

  6. …whoa.

    Go Nick go!

Nurd Up!