i'm feeling very numb right now. so it all has been true and we have to hand in the armenian version of diploma project by 15th.
Instead of going to work for a full day today i spent half of it at university and when i finally got to work i was so pissed off that didn't even manage to right a normal "good-bye" letter as it was my last day at work.
i can say that this has been one of the worst days in my life. the thing is there was a law adopted by the country that the diploma project can be in any language but you will have to present the armenian copy or you can bring only the armenian one. i'm not sure when this law came out but definitely long ago. last year some people defended their projects in english, this year we were told that it's great to have it in english. then a new rector comes to our university, and last week a new vice-rector is elected. The vice-rector says that there is this law and all projects have to be in armenian. it was signed yesterday.
we talked to everybody at the university except for the rector who was 'too busy'. when we went to the vice-rector he said that he doesn't want any problems with the government and that whatever took place before him doesn't touch him in any way. Now he is the vice-rector and everything has to be legal. in other words he is just covering his ass.
even the professors are mad but nobody can do anything. they just played one of the meanest tricks on us. as usual the side for who things turn out the worst are the students.
i just still can't take it in... i can't believe they can do this (in fact already did) and that nothing absolutely nothing can be done. they think they can do everything and that they have the power. Now it is so. but tomorrow things will change. once (actually if..) i graduate, i will write open letters to some newspapers letting everybody know how things really were at this university and what we went through during these years. it won't affect anything but at least the university will gain some bad fame.
i will do my best to cause them as much stress as they caused for us.
they won this battle.. but not the war.
there are many good things about Armenia, but sometimes some bad things outweigh. One of those things is that the country never protects the citizen and that the only thing that can give you a green light in any situation is money.
ERIICTA is not an exception of course. and yes "E" in ERIICTA stands for "European" but it's only the name - long and promising - the european regional institute of information and communication technologies. what stands behind the name? nothing... imagine a balloon with ERIICTA written on it. what will be inside of the balloon? some good stuff? no just old smelling air from somebody's lungs. That's exactly what are university is.
P.S. visit these links:
http://517design.livejournal.com/84920.html
http://517design.blogspot.com/2006/05/eriicta-european-regional-institute-of.html
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Photo-blog
Yes, taking photos has always been there with me for years. When I was a child it was a 'khaki' cam (in both meanings..) and I'd still have it with me constantly and would have to run to the photo-services to develop the negatives and to get the photos printed. Then it was the cam on my mobile phone... which was I guess better than the old one however crazy it may sound. Then it was the good old Sony DSC-S600 which everybody was used to see in my hands. And even though I couldn't set a lot of important things manually I still feel that I learned *a lot* using it. and it's when mom made one of the greatest gifts - the huge photography book which is my desk book at all times. Then I felt like I really want a better cam and that the old one will 'die' soon anyway (when i zoomed in and out it made some strange noise). So yes now i have my Sony DSC H7 and am happy about it. Whatever they say about Sony's cams I will say that the cam is an instrument and you can take great shots even with a bad cam. what matters is how you see things. I like Sony and that's what matters :) and I am used to it, I know how it will behave. it's smth like an old friend.
anyway. lately i felt like i'm kind of turning this blog into a photo-blog so i have decided to create a separate new blog and to upload photos there. here i will upload photos of friends and such, but not a whole bunch of say blossoming trees ;)
http://photo-blog-121.blogspot.com/2008/04/welcome.html
Here's the link.
anyway. lately i felt like i'm kind of turning this blog into a photo-blog so i have decided to create a separate new blog and to upload photos there. here i will upload photos of friends and such, but not a whole bunch of say blossoming trees ;)
http://photo-blog-121.blogspot.com/2008/04/welcome.html
Here's the link.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Khaki university
it's not enough that 90% of professors are badly educated and have no idea what they teach. it's not enough that university's administration is one big mess. it's not enough that they move the deadlines daily and that it's already a habit like Alex says. Now, just now, when the deadline of handing in the 60+ pages of diploma thesis and of its overview of 10 pages is tomorrow, the new rector has decided that all diploma works have to be in armenian. It's done in order that the university commission and commission from other universities are able to read and understand the projects. People who have graduated last year and had projects in english have to translate them now.
we will find out the details tomorrow. if this is true we will just hold a rally.
soon i will make a post under "only in ERIICTA" title. it will be a long post. once i graduate i will have it printed and translated into armenian and will stick to all doors in university. and will make sure all professors and students have copies.
i have bigger plans. since i will have much spare time this summer, i will make a website with photos and stories on ERIICTA.
no need to say how very mad we are now.
we will find out the details tomorrow. if this is true we will just hold a rally.
soon i will make a post under "only in ERIICTA" title. it will be a long post. once i graduate i will have it printed and translated into armenian and will stick to all doors in university. and will make sure all professors and students have copies.
i have bigger plans. since i will have much spare time this summer, i will make a website with photos and stories on ERIICTA.
no need to say how very mad we are now.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
diploma
just one big stress for all of us. things would be very good if people at university stopped shifting the deadlines back and forth and giving us unrealistic information daily.
me, Alex and Anya have chosen such a supervisor who will not help us with the project at all, but will cover us, sign papers etc. She let us work by ourselves without sticking her nose into what we do. Fine, that's what we wanted. And that surely was great for her since she just didn't do anything but had 3 people who have good projects. But she could have at least keep an eye on the deadlines and let us know, and not have us waste time on coming to university every time to hear that the deadline was shifted. Now we have the pre-diploma defense on monday, but she won't be present as she will be in Albany on business.
What for Mary, oh really she is an extremely patient person to have that supervisor. the man is a mathematician.. and a painter (he believes he is and that his pictures are wonderful). He would have her take photos of his pictures, help his other student and god only knows what. she would have her run here and there, pressed with every possible way... but didn't help her project in fact. So yes, we better not complain :D i would have killed that supervisor on the next day!
Anyway. Yesterday Mary and Vova had their pre-diploma defense. the committee was the head of chair of "multimedia and programming", the supervisor, a professor of network, 2 of his students, and us.
I can't decide who of them was the dumbest. probably to decide that we should have given them a test or something like that. i was there, i listened to Vova and Mary for the first time but somehow i understood what they were explaining. the questions that the professors asked were really professionally dumb.
Vova is a designer, he is not a programmer. his project was organization of a virtual museum. he designed the museum using 3dsmax, added music background and when you went on a tour in that museum, a 'guide' would tell about every picture on the wall. i think it's a great idea and the museum itself was a very interesting and useful project. any painter can have his virtual museum as it doesn't make much difference what paintings hang on the walls.
Q.: so you can add any photos?
A.: yes any.
Q.: even from a digital cam?
A.: .. any photos ..
Q.: so what was the 3dsmax part there?
A.: .. the whole museum.. everything except for the paintings..
Q.: ah so you designed just a museum, that's all.
supervisor: why don't you say that the frames of pictures are your work too??
Q.: really? wow!
Q.: so if i am a painter, photographer or whatever i can use that to put my paintings into the frames?
A.: well it will take me smth like a day to replace the photos and to add the necessary information, change the menu etc.
Q.: see? if that was a program that you could sell to a pinter..
me: i'm sorry but he is a designer.
Alex: if a programmer writes that program it will be what you want.
Q.: but didn't he study programming?
me,Alex: surely he did, but do you really believe that it was enough to write such a program?? :D:D the programming taught here is definitely far from being enough to write any normal program :D:D
etc. Mary's project was too complicated for them to understand, but she spoke in such a way that they didn't ask much questions and just were absorbed by the pictures and all. Check out her blog for more information :)
Now some photos..
head of chair of multimedia and design... who knows pascal, some algorithms of Noah's times and how to convert digits from binary to 10-based, 16-based system etc. He has some cool degrees and was educating people in... Algiers.
Mary's supervisor smoking at the chair of informatics.
reflection in the notebook
for the rest of the photos, go here:
me, Alex and Anya have chosen such a supervisor who will not help us with the project at all, but will cover us, sign papers etc. She let us work by ourselves without sticking her nose into what we do. Fine, that's what we wanted. And that surely was great for her since she just didn't do anything but had 3 people who have good projects. But she could have at least keep an eye on the deadlines and let us know, and not have us waste time on coming to university every time to hear that the deadline was shifted. Now we have the pre-diploma defense on monday, but she won't be present as she will be in Albany on business.
What for Mary, oh really she is an extremely patient person to have that supervisor. the man is a mathematician.. and a painter (he believes he is and that his pictures are wonderful). He would have her take photos of his pictures, help his other student and god only knows what. she would have her run here and there, pressed with every possible way... but didn't help her project in fact. So yes, we better not complain :D i would have killed that supervisor on the next day!
Anyway. Yesterday Mary and Vova had their pre-diploma defense. the committee was the head of chair of "multimedia and programming", the supervisor, a professor of network, 2 of his students, and us.
I can't decide who of them was the dumbest. probably to decide that we should have given them a test or something like that. i was there, i listened to Vova and Mary for the first time but somehow i understood what they were explaining. the questions that the professors asked were really professionally dumb.
Vova is a designer, he is not a programmer. his project was organization of a virtual museum. he designed the museum using 3dsmax, added music background and when you went on a tour in that museum, a 'guide' would tell about every picture on the wall. i think it's a great idea and the museum itself was a very interesting and useful project. any painter can have his virtual museum as it doesn't make much difference what paintings hang on the walls.
Q.: so you can add any photos?
A.: yes any.
Q.: even from a digital cam?
A.: .. any photos ..
Q.: so what was the 3dsmax part there?
A.: .. the whole museum.. everything except for the paintings..
Q.: ah so you designed just a museum, that's all.
supervisor: why don't you say that the frames of pictures are your work too??
Q.: really? wow!
Q.: so if i am a painter, photographer or whatever i can use that to put my paintings into the frames?
A.: well it will take me smth like a day to replace the photos and to add the necessary information, change the menu etc.
Q.: see? if that was a program that you could sell to a pinter..
me: i'm sorry but he is a designer.
Alex: if a programmer writes that program it will be what you want.
Q.: but didn't he study programming?
me,Alex: surely he did, but do you really believe that it was enough to write such a program?? :D:D the programming taught here is definitely far from being enough to write any normal program :D:D
etc. Mary's project was too complicated for them to understand, but she spoke in such a way that they didn't ask much questions and just were absorbed by the pictures and all. Check out her blog for more information :)
Now some photos..
head of chair of multimedia and design... who knows pascal, some algorithms of Noah's times and how to convert digits from binary to 10-based, 16-based system etc. He has some cool degrees and was educating people in... Algiers.
Mary's supervisor smoking at the chair of informatics.
reflection in the notebook
for the rest of the photos, go here:
 |
| Friends - ERIICTA |
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
classmates
yesterday (well actually on 06.04..) it was Lilit's birthday (pictured. she hasn't drunk anything yet)
The last time i met up with the class was about 2.5 years ago, so there was much to talk about. It was a strange feeling to see that they didn't change at all but grew older at the same time. Same faces, same characters... but it was some 4 years ago that we were sitting at school benches doing some lessons, and Dashyan shouting "Seroj!!" when he'd make some joke and be silly. The time flies by and one notices things only at moments like this. The other feeling was that no matter how often we see each other, no matter what we did at school, and where we will be during our lives, we will always remain same kids, classmates for each other :)
me, Sergey, Lilit, Dashyan (Lilit's mom, our math teacher), Amalya, and Inessa
It didn't happen. Lilit would kill him )))
yes i had some vodka :D
Vahik, axper jan, it's great to smoke after vodka!
For the rest of the photos, visit this album online:
 |
| Classmates |
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