it's all over now...

wow, it's been almost half a year since i handed in my thesis and since i last updated my blog.

in the meantime i've managed to pass all my exams - the final one yesterday - which means that i'm now a magister artium, or M.A. i only just received the grading for my thesis last friday, which is a perfect 1.0. :-) thanks to any readers crossing their fingers! overall my grade should be a 1.2, if i did the math correctly. i should get my diploma some time next week.

it's been quite a ride... eight years of university might seem like a lot, and i can't say i disagree. however: looking back, i can't say that i'd do much differently a second time around. over the years i spent a lot of time working in my profession and figuring out what i want to do. this has helped secure me a job at a local internet agency as a project manager, which i start this coming tuesday. i'd been freelancing for them over the past six years or so, and without that history there's no way they would have hired me. i could have probably accepted a full-time position from them earlier - but i am glad i finished my education first. it's nice to have a degree to fall back to in case things don't work out with this job, and it also gives me a very pleasant sense of accomplishment. :-)

so... life's been very good to me lately. i hope everyone else is happy too! ;-)

as for this blog: i might transform it somewhat and keep it running. but, knowing me, this could well be the final post. even though i don't think more than a very selected few people ever read anything i wrote on here, it did help me a lot with my thesis. for one thing it was helpful to get a bit of a feel for blogs, and for another it most certainly helped to keep myself motivated by posting goals and status updates here at the end of most days.

a big thanks to my readers and to blogger/google for providing this service!

all the best,
hannes

printed & bound

i picked up my finished thesis today - nicely printed and bound. feels even better than yesterday to see the finished piece in presentable format. i'll post some pics when i get around to it.

all done! RC5 = 1.0 (96/82)

there we go! i brought the paper to the printers' today and should get it printed and bound by 4pm tomorrow, meaning that i'll hand it in on thursday. so, barring any extremely major mistakes (="show stoppers"), i'm all done!

what lies ahead: after getting some other work done (a few things have piled up lately), i need to take my final four exams to get my master's title (actually it's a "magister", which translates to master, but isn't quite the same... confused? so is everyone else.). of the four exams, three are 20-30min oral exams (one each in my major (english) and my two minor subjects (psychology, computer science)), and the other one is a 4h written exam, also in english.

i'm already in the planning phase for those exams - i'll post more details here soon.

RC4 (96/82)

just a quick one: i hope i'm all done now. have yet to hear from the final two proofreaders, but i'll get that out of the way tomorrow morning and then bring the paper to the printers' in the afternoon. i even remembered to layout a cover and title page... :-)