[Leica] OT, but joyful: saloon keeper's daughter graduates

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

Congratulations on your daughter's achievement, Brian. You are rightly  
feeling proud.

As for the ceremonial bit, this is one part of US culture that I never  
adjusted to. All this pomp and circumstance seems really weird and  
frankly just unneeded expense. I have 4 academic degrees, 3 of which  
were acquired in the US, but I have never attended a graduation  
ceremony. The thought of standing on a stage wearing a black cape and  
a funny hat in the Florida heat was enough to convince me that picking  
up my diploma at the office a couple of days later (or getting it sent  
to me by mail) was a much better option :-)

Cheers and congrats once again,

Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com

Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
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Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog



On Jun 7, 2009, at 9:39 PM, Brian Reid wrote:

> Day before yesterday I was part of an intimate little crowd of  
> 11,000 people who sat in plastic folding chairs under constant  
> threat of rain next to the Charles River while about 2000 people  
> were conferred with degrees at MIT. My youngest child, Elizabeth,  
> who is a member of the LUG but has been too busy being a student to  
> participate much this year, was awarded a Master's in Electrical  
> Engineering and Computer Science. Her cap was attached to her hair  
> with so many bobby pins that she needed her sister's help to get it  
> off her head afterwards. (Last year at her BS graduation, the wind  
> blew her cap off just as the official photographer snapped the  
> official picture).
>
> I only got to the ceremony 2 hours before it started, so I was  
> seated so far back that I couldn't see the stage. I did manage to  
> get off a photograph of the Jumbotron video screen while it was  
> showing a smiling Elizabeth, but I forgot that Jumbotrons are  
> interlaced and set the shutter speed too high, so the picture is a  
> little odd. But she showed me the diploma afterwards as proof that  
> she really was up there when they called out her name.
>
> Elizabeth's sister (Vanessa) and I did some stopwatch work during  
> the graduation ceremony, and we determined that they were reading  
> the names of, and finding diplomas for, and sending across the  
> stage, 32 graduates per minute. If you are not astonished by that  
> number, why don't you find a list of 32 names from 20 countries and  
> try reading them out loud and see how long it takes you.  At least 2  
> of the test names must have more than 12 syllables. You get no  
> credit unless you pronounce them all correctly. Rehearsing is  
> permitted.
>
> I didn't get any pictures because I didn't really want pictures of  
> the backs of the heads of other students' parents, and I was there  
> to jubilate and not to photograph. So I bought package C-7 from the  
> official event photographer, which will include a TIFF with right to  
> print for family use.
>
> She's not flying home with me today because she's got a wedding to  
> shoot next weekend here in Boston; then she'll fly home, soon to  
> start an actual job in Cupertino, California.
>
> Thanks for listening. I'll probably stop smiling in a few weeks, but  
> next year Elizabeth's sister will graduate from law school and I get  
> to do it again.
>
>
>
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