Dear all,

You can blame Christine Barber for this newsletter. She mentioned in an email that she hadn't gotten one in awhile (almost two years now, I think), so that prompted me to write again. A lot has happened in two years, but instead of going into painstaking (and often excruciatingly painful to read) detail, as I am accustomed, I'll just give a basic overview of the major events in my life since 2002.

First, to answer the basic questions that I am sure are burning in your minds right now - yes, I have graduated, no, I do not have a girlfriend/fiancé/wife, yes, I still write and perform music, and no, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life. Now that that's over with, some details...

GRADUATION AND RESEARCH

I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science on May 15 (the day before my birthday) of this year. I did not walk or participate in the ceremony in any way (they were going to charge me money for my gown, my seat in the graduation hall, the food I ate, etc. Ridiculous...). As Tim Canavan and Chris Webb would say, it's all "American rah-rah rubbish" anyway. Truth be told, I still don't feel like I've graduated. Part of that is because I haven't received my official diploma yet, but it's mostly because my current plan is to stick around here for Graduate school. I came to this decision sort of by accident, and right now I am not sure that I can handle another 18 months of class, let alone another Chicago winter. A piece of me dies every winter, and it's getting harder and harder to resuscitate that part of me each summer. Goodness, I hate winter.

I have been involved in a Computer Science research area called Pervasive Computing for the last year with Professor Xian-He Sun, and the work I do with him is very exciting and interesting. It's real cutting edge technical research, and I get to play with lots of expensive computer toys. My work with him and his offer to help support me financially during graduate school was the major factor in my decision to even attend graduate school, and to stick it out here at Illinois Tech. I am excited about being able to spend more time working with my Interprofessional Project (IPRO) team (that's the avenue through which our research is funded - Motorola supports the IPRO program here and earmarks most of it's funding for my team), but as I look at some of the other classes I am going to have to take to earn my Master's, I am pretty discouraged. I find that I am very excited about my research and dreading everything else. But Dr. Sun is counting on me to continue working with him, and he has managed to find a little bit of money to throw my way for my trouble, so I will at least be a part time graduate student next semester.

My research has pretty much defined my academic life this last year. I haven't much cared about any of my other classes (except Dr. Zesmer's Literature courses, but I took all he offered and still had two semesters of school left - I tried to retake one for special credit, but they wouldn't let me). I was involved in the IPRO as a student in spring of 2003. I had been dreading having to take an IPRO (two are required for every student) because I knew that they were so hit-and-miss in regards to value. I was lucky because my good friend Patrick Wagstrom, who was a graduate student at the time, was leading the IPRO 305 team that semester and sort of recruited me. He was working on Pervasive Computing-related stuff for his thesis, so the IPRO team that semester worked on a PC-related application. The following summer, Dr. Sun had some National Science Foundation grant money specifically for undergraduate research assistants, so I worked part time in the lab. A lot of my early work was developing supplemental software to Patrick's thesis project, but halfway through the summer, at the request of Dr. Sun, I wrote a conceptualization document outlining a scenario in which an automated tour guide would be useful. Using this conceptualization document, I developed some prototype software that showcased the technologies, and even integrated it with Patrick's thesis software. We presented the tour software to some higher-ups in the administration, and the IPRO office took an interest. So the following semester (fall 2003), I took the reigns of IPRO 305 and the HawkTour project began.

Since then, I've been leading a different team of 12-15 people each semester as we develop the HawkTour concept and software. I'm pretty proud of the work I've been doing. Last semester we were the top project in our IPRO category and the second-best website (www.hawktour.net) overall. If all goes as planned, we'll continue to win each semester. :-) It has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I had management experience before, but this type of project management was different than anything else I'd done. There's a huge learning curve for anyone getting into the project, and since I work with basically a new team every semester, we don't move as quickly as I'd like. Dr. Sun is a hands-off sort of guy - he pretty much lets me do my own thing unless he feels really strongly about something we're doing. He's also a bit of a slave driver - and it's only going to get worse because now I'm his graduate student. That's a whole new level of pain for me, I think! :-) It's both a blessing and a curse that he's hands-off. Most of the time I am very glad, since I get to make the decisions and I get to do things my way. Occasionally, though, I wish I didn't have to be the one in charge, especially when it comes to handing out grades. I hate giving out grades, especially since IPRO grading is so subjective. It's a necessary evil, I guess.

FRATERNITY

Other than school, the major part of my life is the fraternity. I was extremely burnt out with it after my semester as president (fall 2003). I was taking 21 credit hours that semester (18's considered a full load), as well as working 20 hours a week and leading the IPRO for the first time. Needless to say, I was overworked. I was permanently tired, slept during what little free time I could find, and constantly felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything, despite the fact that I was always doing SOMETHING. I guess my presidency suffered because of that, but in retrospect, I really don't know what I could or would have done differently even if I had had more time. What I found that semester was that the house was heading in a very different direction than I wanted to take it, and I sort of panicked because I felt powerless to stop the downward spiral we seemed to be in. On top of everything, we had a girl pass away while at a fraternity house (though it was later discovered that drugs and alcohol had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with her death), and that turned an already biased administration further against the Greek community. And no, I do not have delusions of persecution - they really are ridiculously biased against us. Finally, my close friend Ricardo and I had a major falling out (which neither of us handled the right way), and that just added more stress to my life.

This past semester things came to a head in regards to the "downward spiral." We seem to have gotten as low as we can go as an organization, and I have found that I just don't have the strength to fight any more. I wish I could do the noble thing and fight to the bitter end, and hope against all odds, but I am a very beaten warrior, and I am going to bow out of the battle while I still have most of my limbs. So I am moving out of the house next semester, though I could live there as a graduate student if I really wanted to. It adds a lot of complexity to my life, mostly because I have to find an apartment and roommates, and I'll have to find a way to pay rent. But living in the house is killing me faster than the Chicago winters are, so I feel like I have to get out. I'm not severing my ties with the fraternity, though I strongly considered it all of last semester. My hope is that I can help out Aaron, who is president next semester, and my good friend Alex Bartman, who is vice-president. These two guys have what it takes to turn the house around, but they're going to need a huge cheering section to get it done. I guess I'll be a cheerleader. :-)

SUMMERTIME AND WORK

It's finally summer, and I am happier now than I have been in a long, long time. I feel like I am actually myself during the summer. I wasn't kidding when I said that winter is killing me. I think most of you who knew me in PNG would hardly recognize me during the winter. I feel like a totally different person. I doubt I suffer from full-blown seasonal depression, but I am certainly seasonally sensitive. :-)

Anyway, I am working full-time here on campus. I am now the acting manager of the IIT Support Desk, the place to go when you're having computer or internet problems on campus. The previous manager, Fitz, is a Marine reservist whose unit got activated (he heads to Iraq in a couple of weeks), and I was bumped up to take over his job. I didn't get his pay grade, though. :-( I complain a lot about the job, but it isn't all that bad I guess. I just wish it paid more and was a little more interesting. I will probably continue working here next semester as well. Anyway, it's a decent job and I have a lot of free time to work on my own projects, so it's a perfect school-time job.

My close friends Brad and Keira Havens (married August of last year) are going out to California next week (July 6). It is going to be tough to say goodbye to them. They have been a blessing to me, especially this past semester, and it is going to be difficult not having them around. Keira is in the Air Force, and supposedly she's going to be working in underground missile silos or something. It seems the Air Force just doesn't know what to do with Molecular Biochemists. Brad has his degree in Computer Engineering, and he hopes to get a job working with audio equipment, designing amps and stuff. Of course, like most of us, he'll take any job he can get right now.

It is sizing up to be a rather expensive travel summer. I am going down to Texas next weekend for Patrick's wedding, and then Kara Russel's wedding out in Oregon is at the end of the month. Benji Campbell and I are hoping to get together towards the end of August for a trip of some sort, but given our ultra-poor financial status and our upcoming student loan payments, it's a bit iffy.

Anyway, I guess that's the basic update on my life. If you think I am the most witty and insightful writer you've ever read, and you'd like to read more of my opinions on movies, music, books, technology, etc, then you should check out my website at http://www.tylerbutler.com. OK, that's enough shameless plugging. :-)

I'd love to hear from you all, if you get the chance to write.

Tyler