Back at Georgia Tech, I moved into an ant-infested room on the top floor of Harrison dorm; I didn't have any bug spray, so I attacked the pests with the two aerosol cans I did have - as it turns out, ants will die if you drench them in enough Lysol and WD-40.
In Summer '90 I barely interacted with my roommate: a big, religious guy whose name I don't remember. I do remember performing a nightly ritual: sitting in the hallway outside the room after my roommate had gone to bed at an early hour, I would meticulously use this small pair of scissors to cut tiny squares from a plaster of salicylic acid, remove the wax paper backing, precisely stick the medicated adhesive bits onto a number of warts on the sole of my foot, then navigate my way into the darkened room and climb up into my elevated bed without undoing my foot work. Sorry if this is all Too Much Information, but I took pride in having the discipline to successfully clear my plantar area over a couple of months of sustained effort.
Academically, I was hitting on all cylinders - I pulled a 4.0 for the second (and last) time of my undergraduate career. One class had a single textbook (Fluid Mechanics I), two classes (Elementary Electronics, Electric Power Conversion) shared the same textbook, and two classes (Experimental Methodology, Principles & Applications Of Engineering Materials) each used a textbook + lecture notes supplement + lab manual. I took it as a good omen that my Materials lab partner was an Indian guy named Anil, pronounced the same as the verb "anneal" (to temper or toughen a material via heat treatment), which was a topic covered in the course. I remember that Fluids was the first class I took in a classroom that had a whiteboard instead of a chalkboard. I also remember that the teaching assistant for the class was a Big Deal - in the syllabus he was listed as the "Woodruff Doctoral Teaching Intern," and apparently he lived up to the hype: Googling indicates that he is now "The Bagrit and Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Medical Device Design" at Imperial College London. His cool vibe made an impression on me - he would wield the dry-erase marker while wearing shorts and a Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt; when I later became a TA, I tried to emulate his approachability and friendly demeanor.
Below is my course summary for Elementary Electronics (which I was allowed to bring to the final exam) and the 5.25" floppy disk I used for the Experimental Methodology class, along with some programming notes and a quaint page from the lab manual about the virtues of digital. I guess analog circuits are still a thing, today?
Here are a couple of pages of notes from my Electric Power Conversion class: an obligatory Hasbro reference, and an "aha moment" (no torque pun intended) about DC machines.
RIP James Freaney, one of my best friends throughout my time at Georgia Tech. As freshmen we were staples in the Smith dorm TV lounge, including during the 1988 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals, when we braved the derision of a room full of Hawks supporters by being the only two Celtics fans cheering Larry Bird to victory in his epic Game 7 duel with Dominique Wilkins. The Long Islander and I shared comedic sensibilities - he made me laugh with his impression of David Letterman's impression of Sparky Anderson, and he was always quick with a quote from a John Landis movie. When he joined a fraternity (Psi Upsilon), it's a testament to him that (despite my aversion to Greek life) I briefly considered rushing; the chapter's website seems to channel his spirit, as it champions geekiness, condemns hazing, and invites prospective members to join a "fighting force of extraordinary magnitude."
I lost touch with him sometime in the '90s; a few years ago I saw in the Georgia Tech alumni magazine that he had passed away at the age of 45, cruelly felled by a heart attack on a midtown Atlanta sidewalk. Via his obituary, I learned that he had stayed in town after graduation and become a father and a lawyer, and that he was a trivia maven; it would've been nice to have reunited and done a pub quiz together.