The Graduate

Yesterday was my graduation ceremony at the Jubilee Auditorium. The ceremony started at 9:00am but us graduands had to be there at 7:30am to get fitted in the robes of the false priesthood. It was good to see a lot of friends from class again and to hear what they've been up to since school ended. Tammy and Emma came, as well as both my parents and my Grandma Bourne. The ceremony was a bit long for Emma but she did really well and she was a big hit with everyone from class. Afterwards we went over to my parents house and the family gathered for a celebratory BBQ and birthday party for Tammy. Joe and Erica brought Josh over and it was great to see them as its been about 6 months since we all got together. Josh just turned 2 the day before and he's running around and talking really well. As I officially join the ranks of SAIT Alumni (with honours by the by) my brother Trevor joins the SAIT student body as he just got accepted in the Engineering Design and Drafting program to start this September. We're all excited for him and he's excited too. Maybe someday we'll have to start up our own drafting company with my Dad and Trevor Ganchar....I call President.

Out Forever

I wrote my final final yesterday so i'm officially done school! I have to go back today to pick up my final projects and then there's grad next month but other than that it's over. Although I'm pumped about finally being done with homework, assignments, and tests, I'll miss the people....ah the people. This is the final sentance in this entry, and I say that because I noticed I've used the word "final" at least once in every sentance in this entry. Except this one.

Work Week

I just finished "work week" which is a part of my course requirements. Everyone in the program drew names of architectural firms from a hat and then we got to go work for them for a week. I drew Randall R. Gibson and Associates who happen to work down the hall from Dejong Design Associates. It was good to try something new as The Gibson associates do mainly landscape architecture for community developments and parks and such. I was a bit worried my first day when the computer they sat me down at had the word "slave" rotating around on the screen as the screen saver, but I later found out that it was just the name of the computer. I spent most of the week drafting but on Thursday Jeff and I went out to Randy's place in Bragg Creek to do some measurements on the gigantic log house he's building out there. It's a ways out of town but it sure is beautiful out there. I'd move out to a place like that in a second if I could ever afford it. Anyways, I'll be back to Dejong part-time again next week and back to full-time school as well. I have to say it was definitely nice having evenings again. I'll miss certain aspects of school life but I'm really looking forward to full-time work again. My thanks to the Gibson team for a fun an educational week.

SAIT Christmas Party 2005

The holidays were busier than I thought they would be so I'm a bit behind on the news machine. Our program at SAIT hosted another Christmas party this past December after finals. All the usuals and the unusuals were there, including most of the faculty who seemed to out-party the students. It was a swell time and I even came away with a door prize, Snoopy seat-belt covers! Goodbye caloused colarbones!

Out for Summer

Today was my last day of school for this semester. Actually last Friday was my last day of classes and this week was all exams and all final projects. Everything is done and I'm pretty sure my exams went really well. It feels good. Now I have a 4 month summer until we start up again at the end of August. No big vacation plans though, I'll be starting work on monday and the baby should arrive within the next 6 weeks. We're hoping to get a fence up and a deck/patio built this summer too. Sounds like we'll be busy and broke.

CRHBA Design Competition 2005

This past Thursday was the deadline for the CRHBA house design competition. It's a competition for all the first year AT students at SAIT (there's about 100) in which we were to design a house and a site plan for a predetermined site out in the Springbank area. Our presentation had to include floor plans, 4 elevations, and a site plan, all at specified scales. We could also include a perspective view if space permitted. Our boards went up on Thursday and the judging took place that afternoon. I found out today that I tied for first place in the presentation category! It's exciting because there is scholarship money that is part of the reward. I have to thank Dave Walker and his boss Marvin DeJong for letting me use there office computers and printers to complete the project. Dave was a huge help as he taught me how to use a 3D rendering program called Sketch-up that we used for most of the project, and he probably put just as many hours into it as I did. I'm really happy with the finished product and I'm grateful for all the training I received in the process.

Here is a picture of the Cardston Temple that I drew for a project earlier in the year. I finally have the ability to scan images into the computer so I thought I would add it here.

Sait Christmas Party 2004

After exams were over, a bunch of the first and second year AT students got together for a Christmas dinner. Almost everyone from our class showed up; in fact, we made up about 75% of the attendance because a lot of the students in the other groups were no-shows. The food was ok (too many string beans for this cowboy), but it was a good way to celebrate the end of the first semester.