Rising Above Mediocrity
by Benjamin Geiger

Free… for now, anyway.

All of my courses are over for the semester! (Yes, I know final week hasn’t started. None of my courses have tests during final week.) So far I have a confirmed A in Intro to Computer Graphics, despite mysterious failures of my term project. I also have good feelings about Computer Architecture; the lowest I foresee making is a B. I’m still waiting on the results of the final exam in Electronic Materials, but I’m headed for either a B or a low A.

Network Analysis is the one I’m most curious about. Before Exam #2, I figured I was headed for a B if I did well, or C otherwise. Due to professor Gordon’s late arrival and consequent change of the grade scale (five questions on the test; he said we could complete any four and the fifth would count for extra credit), there’s a chance—however slim it may be—that I could make an A.

I have trouble accepting anything less than an A. I’m still trying to recover from my childhood; as a “smart kid” it was made perfectly clear that As were the baseline, and anything less was failure. At times I wished I could be like the others, for whom a B was cause for celebration and an A was an enormous triumph. I had no triumph, no way of rising above my level. Those who were submerged in the muck could earn admiration for ascending a very short distance toward mediocrity, while those of us who were already soaring got no respect at all. It angered me then and it angers me now.

(entry copied from my blog@USF blog)

Are there any Pump It Up machines in Tampa (preferably near the USF campus) or Lakeland?

It’d be nice if they were Exceed or Exceed 2, but even an older version would be fine. For that matter, even a decent DDR machine would help.

As of today, my trend-weight is 289.3 pounds, meaning I’m 29.3 pounds from the goal I set in my New Year’s resolution.

The funniest part is that I’ve been cheating like mad on my diet. In fact, on the way home yesterday I had a large Filet-o-Fish meal, then I had a Mike’s Hard Lemonade when I got back to the house. Maybe all the exercise is doing it.

USF recently started offering blogs to students, so I created one. It’s called Rising Above Mediocrity - Branch Office. Imaginative name, isn’t it?

As a general rule, that blog will serve as a repository for things I think my fellow students should see. Almost everything that gets posted there will be posted here. (Is there a way to automatically repost entries from one blog to another?)

come on down to South Park, gonna have ourselves a time…

That’s a real shirt. It’s very common at USF (the school mascot is Rocky the Bull, and our colors are green and gold). I don’t own one yet, but I want one. And they don’t have an iPod in the image library so I went with the generic “music player” part.

(Image created with South Park Studio. Meme borrowed from Mark by way of Charles. I won’t go to the extent Charles does, though; I look much the same while at work/school or out on the town, and I’ll leave my blogging appearance to your imagination. [One hint, though: sweatshorts and no shirt.])

A friend offered me a job, writing code on a contract basis. It is, in his words, “’shit work’ for crappy money”, but it’s an opportunity.

I’m afraid to accept it. The idea honestly scares me to death.

And I think I just realized why. Up until now, my competence has been determined solely by my academic results. Since I do well in school, I’m considered competent. I know I’m competent enough to solve toy problems in controlled environments. But now, I’m going to have to jump into the Real World and sink or swim.

There’s no way to tell whether I’m competent enough to survive in the world outside academia until I’m put to the test. It’s like Schrödinger’s résumé; I’m simultaneously competent and incompetent. Do I have the strength to escape my current half-competent state, even if it means facing the possibility that I’m not as brilliant as I thought?

Pope John Paul II, 1920 - 2005.

Requiescat in pace.