Archived comment by umrguy:
Well, I think it went pretty well. However, since this is my first interview, it's hard to be absolutely certain. And the truth is, I won't really know how well it went for another week or two until (if?) they get in touch with me to follow up on it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

Archived comment by Arlene:
So, umrguy, how did it go?

Archived comment by Jon:
I used to use that, but I am faster with the "click on the application" mouse movement. Always keep email open, if possible. Especially if you keep your inbox free of messages.

Archived comment by JP:
... he typed as his manager walked up behind him... erk...

(Damn these open-plan offices. But god bless that alt-tab key combination)

Archived comment by JP:
Jon, I was presuming that everyone here had a soul :)

Archived comment by umrguy:
Well, JP, actually, it hasn't happened yet. I've got my Distrib. OS test in 2 hours, with the interview 3 hours after that. I'll try and let you guys know how it went after that.

Archived comment by Jon:
Not until they become managers, JP.

Archived comment by JP:
Oh, and not wanting to piss on anyone's fireworks or anything, but you student-types do realise that this is the least amount of work you'll have to do until you retire, don't you :^)?

Archived comment by JP:
I'd wish you luck for your interview, umrguy, but I suspect by now that "how did it go?" would be more appropriate.

So, how did it go?

Archived comment by umrguy:
My bad - that last link was wrong. It's this.

Archived comment by umrguy:
Alright, a brief explanation of St. Pat's break for anyone who isn't familiar with it, why it would be big here in Rolla, and so forth.

To start with, either follow the link above, or follow this link to find out more about St. Pat's at Rolla, but I'll do my best to sum it up for those who don't feel like clicking links.

St. Pat's is, of course, St. Patrick's Day, March 17. St. Patrick supposedly drove the snakes out of Ireland, and used the shamrock to explain the Christian God-in-3-Persons (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit). If I'm not mistaken, he's also the patron saint of Ireland. Additionally, St. Patrick is the patron saint of miners.

In 1871, the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (MSM) was founded. Over the years, it added engineering programs to complement the school of mines, and in the 1960s (I believe) MSM was fully integrated into the University of Missouri system, and became the University of Missouri-Rolla, with its main focus on the School of Engineering and the School of Mines and Metallurgy.

Anyway, in 1908, the University of Missouri-Columbia invited MSM to send a delegate to UM-C's St. Pat's festivities. However, the students at MSM decided to hold their own celebration, and after working in secret, effectively forced March 17, 1908, to be a school holiday, whereupon "St. Patrick" arrived at the train station, named his first court of Knights of the Order of St. Patrick. Much drinking, partying, celebrating, and a concert followed, and thus St. Patrick's Day at Rolla, "The Best Ever," was begun. The next year, the school made St. Pat's a school holiday, and the junior class was put in charge of planning St. Pat's festivities.

In 1930, the St. Pat's Board was created to take over the task of planning and putting on the festivities, and continued until 1991, when the unfortunate death of a member led to the dissolution of the Board. However, not to let the tradition die, a number of the Board members, along with new members, formed a new group, and the St. Pat's Committee was formed and took over where the St. Pat's Board had left off, and continues today to run the festivities.

On Saturday, March 17, 2001, UMR will celebrate its 93rd "Best Ever" St. Patrick's Day. During the week leading up to it, various games and festivities will be held. A court of Knights of the Order of St. Patrick still exists, along with the St. Patrick's Court, and a Queen of Love and Beauty will be elected, and St. Patrick will appear again. During these past three days, freshmen of Greek affiliation made and decorated the traditional shillelaghs, and "killed" rubber snakes on campus. On St. Patrick's Day, a parade will be held, with floats, the St. Pat's Court, the Knights, and of course, St. Patrick himself.

(for a somewhat more complete history, which I more or less ripped off, follow this link)

Over the years, on or around St. Patrick's Day, UMR has held Spring Recess. This is now traditionally the week during which the St. Patrick's Day festivities are held, and the two days off at the end allow students to take time to participate in those activities or just have the time off. (This year, we are able to actually have the break line up with St. Pat's Day, so it's very nice.)

For those who might be wondering, no, "Alice" no longer exists. Then-Chancellor Park banned it a few years ago, if I'm not mistaken. (If you have to ask, trust me, you really do not want to know what "Alice" was.)

Archived comment by rushlight:
We don't get March break because it's Lent and the teachers know they can't get drunk. :(

Archived comment by umrguy:
I have a test tomorrow in Distributed Operating Systems (that's right, I'm a CompSci major), and then after that, I'm going on a retreat this weekend, after which, I have three days of class followed by a 4 day weekend ("Spring Recess" - really just a break for St. Pat's so that all of the people drinking have extra time to drink, do stupid stuff, and maybe recover). After that, it's another week of school followed by Spring Break, where I intend to go home (unfortunately, but it costs extra money to stay here, and I don't think the cafeterias are open), and get some sleep, and work on some of the projects I have to do.

On the more interesting side, I have a job interview tomorrow (the first real one I've ever had - I don't count the interview for hiring with McDonald's), so I need to build up all the good karma I can, so wish me luck, 'cuz I really don't want to go work in fast food again this summer, and besides, I need the experience so I can get a real job when I get out.

Phreeow, I feel better now. Thanks to everybody for letting me vent.

Archived comment by Violet Rose:
Oh, wounldn't that be dandy. I am sick, and I have, like 2 projects due on friday, before march break. All this work is sucking my will to live!

Archived comment by rushlight:
Fifteen minutes south of ya.

Archived comment by Talshadar:
Rushlight:

Where in alberta? I'm in Calgary. Plus, going to public school (and living on a farm) we got snow days all the time :-) Or at least we did when we had decent snow fall.

Archived comment by Ceallach:
I had a college professor who used to hand out $5.00 to every student who showed up for classes and did the Chem lab's for the entire week. The first hour was spent doing labs in the classroom and at 4:00 p.m., he would pass out the cash and send us over to Marty's (a pub near campus) to finish the hour of lecture while we enjoyed our beer. We called it the 4 o'clock club!! He was cool!!

Archived comment by umrguy:
I went to a Catholic grade school and a Jesuit high school, and I did have some snow days, but they tried to limit them as much as possible.... wasn't until high school in fact that I ever went to school on a so-called "snow schedule".

College, on the other hand, I've never had a snow day at, although there have been a few times where a professor has let us out early because of bad weather, and last semester, the last day of exams it was snowy and icy, and so in my exam, the professor gave us extra time to finish, and announced that he would apparently be having a second session for the exam for those who couldn't make it in (how they were supposed to know this, I don't know, but...)

Now, other fun stuff in college:

Getting to class and finding out that there is no class (one semester, the professor who taught the 9:30 am class I went to on Tuesdays and Thursdays did that several times, so I had to get up and walk to the CS building, only to find there was no class - really bugged me).

I had a professor one time who hated teaching on Fridays as much as we hated being there, so whenever possible, he would not have Friday class (although he would tell us the Wednesday right before).

Last week, in my Computer Networks class, the instructor took us on a "field trip" to see some of the important network components around campus. It was pretty cool, actually. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been on a field trip.

Anyway, it's just fun stuff like that that I get to deal with here.

Archived comment by rushlight:
I've seen that happen with the witch scene, too. Or you can just do the ol' elementary school classic and all drop your books at the same time...we didn't have a subsitute for two years. :)
One of the problems with going to a Catholic school in Alberta is that they never EVER cancel a day of school. I've never had a snow-day.

Archived comment by dave:
Well, we never had a lecturer cancel class, though we did have one walk out once. Something to do with the guy that stood up and said, "I never wanted to be a mathematician .... I just want to be a lumberjack!" and the 30 of us that then broke into that time honoured python classic.

Archived comment by Jon:
OK, Mike, I realize you're an English major, but still... *jk* Knocking on wood with your fingers crossed? Step 1: Cross fingers. Step 2: Rotate wrist until palm is facing upward. Step 3: Apply downward force to hands, impacting wood for brief but repeated contacts.


That's so hard? ;^p

Archived comment by Jon:
Well, we did get snow in the Boston area, though not enough to compete with the blizzard of '78(I myself was too young to remember it at the time). Amazingly, the town that I grew up in, which is notorious for *not* taking snow days, actually closed school both yesterday and today. I was beginning to think it would take a lawsuit from an injured child's parent... my friend, a teacher in said schools, was greatly relieved.

I was lucky at college - I had easy-going profs. Especially in the Classics department: they knew when it was time to kick back and relax. One prof hosted a class/dinner partyat his apartment. Very civilized.

Archived comment by rushlight:
Yuri, I think you found the perfect teacher. Send him to my school.

Archived comment by Milo:
Here in the D.C. area, we were supposed to get much snow today (didn't happen). As they were talking about snow removal plans, I thought: "Wouldn't it be nice if the local governments all decided that they'd just let the snow fall this time, and not clear it 'til Monday evening? Just shut everything down, and give the city a long weekend." That would have been nice. However, that's not how it worked. Oh well.

Archived comment by Yuri:
I actually had a professor announce that the dehumanization of society could be blamed on our intense drive toward greater productivity, and that the class was thereby cancelled for the day on the condition that we each go out and do absolutely nothing for an hour.

That man is my hero.

Archived comment by Mike:
(crosses fingers, knocks on wood [even harder to do than it sounds])
That seems like the only way I'll get through today. Through the rest of this month, for that matter.
Ow, I think I dislocated my pinkie!