Thursday, October 7, 2004

Quote 9: "Not all who wander are lost"

"Not all who wander are lost." -- J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)

(Subtitle: Where am I going next? The major question of grad school).

Every weekday evening I get home from school and make dinner. I set aside dinner time to be my chance to watch a little TV and checkout my favorite sites online. Today as I watched TV I began to wander - what is it that I want to do with my life? I know what you are thinking - why did she starting thinking about this while I was watching TV? Isn't watching TV suppose to numb the brain?

I know, how dare I think and watch TV at the same time. ;-) Of course, this is not the first time I have thought about it. As I am finishing a year's worth of graduate school I am starting to get to the point were I need to pick what I am going to do next. I have planned to go on in my studies - actually I pick that part first before I even knew what I was going to major in!

Now after working on my masters, I have to narrow down what is it about computer science that I really like. What is it in computer science I want to study even more? These are difficult questions to answer. I know several things I don't want to study. I like a lot of areas of CS. Maybe if I can figure out a way to combine these areas and then throw in a little classic civilizations (a totally outside area that I happen to enjoy, more like a hobby at the moment).

Why do I need to figure this all out? The school I am currently attending doesn't have a phD program in CS, just a masters. I am trying to look for next schools to go and one of the things you have to fill out on the application is area of study and interest of research. When I applied for masters programs it was easy to put a broad area. You would think after almost a year I would have a better idea wouldn't ya? But the reality is, nope. However, I am not going to worry to much. One of these days I will figure it out.

I thought that the J.R.R. Tolkien quote fit right into this topic and is the reason why I selected it. It is one of my favorite lines written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is short, simple, and easy to understand. What more could you ask?

Thanks for stopping by and reading yet another installment of my blog. It was extremely nice of you. Until next time.

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