An answer

For those of you who puruse my friend Phil, I feel the need to pose a counter example to his continual blasting of all things corporate.

As a poor, but morally upright, college student, I have found the need to use open source software for my main office suite over the past year or so. I had illegal copies of certain expensive softwares at my disposal, but I have been attempting to stay pirate free on my computer. So, I experienced the monstrosity known as Open Office. This free download attempted merely to copy MS and did so very poorly on all accounts. It was very counter intuitive. It was extremely buggy. It was non-compatible to other major software suites. When writing a paper that actually required formatting, I found the system so lacking, that I just wrote the words in Open Office and then transported it to a different computer to do formatting. Even then, it corrupted the formatting when viewed. I have found wordpad to be a better text editor then OO. So, I finally bit the bullet and spent the $100 for a full office suite that not only gives you powerful controls on all the details in how you present your papers, but also allows for powerful computing tools and amazing presenting systems that have revolutionized business presentations.

Sometimes when you pay somebody for their ideas, you get better ideas... ;-)

A new adventure

And so it begins. I have attended my first class as a student at a secular university.

A few thoughts:
I am happy when I can speak the same language as the person sitting next to me.

I am starting to grasp the importance in secular universities of reputation and rank. Almost every professor who I have heard speak, begins with praises of the new prestige of USC. A 4.05 GPA. A 10% acceptance rate. #4 EE department in the nation. A new $100 million institute... etc, etc. I liked Biola's bragging far better. When it has to do with something a little bigger than a team of 11 guys who can move a ball around better than any other team of guys, it is a little more reasonable to get excited. ;-)

On the other hand, I am surrounded by far more opportunities then I had ever had available to me before. Pray that I use them well and am a good witness for my heritage and my faith.

It will be a lot of fun to take 3 heavy duty engineering courses (Optics, Quantum Mechanics for Engineers, and Quantum Communication), but I think certain parts of my poor soul will soon start feeling neglected. I wish we had a piano...and I hope I will find time for reading of philosophy, theology, etc.

My thoughts on LA's public transportation are still in the polls. For my particular route, it might actually be just about as convenient, and it will likely be far cheaper... But my American individualism is crying out for control... It stresses me out to Have to be at a particular place by a particular time or I will be late for classes...

I am introduced to my other two classes tomorrow. Perhaps you will be blessed with another exciting post in the near future...who knows. ;-)