2008!!!
Yay, the new year is here! Though it will take at least a month for me to remember that when I put a header on my papers. I find that annualy, the year shifts one month. Each year begins in February and ends in January.
I love Christmas time because I get to see lots of people and get and give some cool stuff. I got an awesome book this year that I asked my mother for. It is called, "The Policemans Beard is Half Constructed." It is a book of prose and poetry written by a computer program named RACTER. It is the first of its kind, programmed by Will Chamberlain. It is quite the book. One of his poems reads:
"More than iron, more than lead, more than gold I need electricity.
I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber.
I need it for my dreams"
It's quite impressive for a computer program. I first heard of RACTER when I was listening to the audio from a robotics conference in Germany this past december. There was a presentation given by a programmer entitled "Programming Computers to Write Literature So Humans Don't Have To." It was really quite fascinating. He Examined different methods of programming computers to write literature, and touched on the theory of templates, such as Mad-Libbing. RACTER is a program that sometimes does this, and sometimes does not. It is quite impressive, and I highly recommend that you check it out.
So, this Christmas was lovely, and I got to see lots of family. This Holiday had the most family over ever, and it was great!
Now I am in Georgia. It is nice down here, however, it is not paradise like I was told it would be. It is 31 degrees down here, I was told it would be hotter here than at home. But its not cold, it's just not warm.
I can't wait to get back to school. There should have been more work done on campus, which is exciting. Overnight these things seem to spring up. We have new benches and light fixtures! They decorated the campus for Christmas which was just a huge surprise. I was sick on the first day they came up, but I was so pleased to see them.
On our last wednesday, we had a big Christmas Luncheon. It was great! We had lots of community members, faculty, and students in the Cathedral. It was a shame that I had so much Greek studying to do because I'm sure I would have enjoyed socializing.
Oh well, it is now lunchtime. I must go. I hope your Christmas was exciting, eventful, prosperous, and joyful.
Chris Barber
