for a special graduate

i found out this week that the graduation process for my school has been modified. here is the way it use to work: thousands of people crowded into grace community church to watch as their favorite student marched down the aisle and received his diploma. next, the crowd looked on and the student had his picture taken with the president of the college and proudly moved his tassel to the left side of his cap.

however, that won't be the case this year.

the new format works this way: after a group baccalaureate in the main auditorium each of the majors will be splitting up into smaller classrooms where the head of each department will deliver the diplomas in a small-group setting.

the supposed reasons i've heard for this change are varied. they range from the idea the administration is answering requests for a "more intimate" graduation process to the suggestion that this is the containment of an un-containable applause that is inevitably produced at graduations. whatever the case, the topic has sent a ripple of discussion about the nature of a meaningful or purposeful graduation.

we were discussing it on friday and mark told us that dr. suzuki had suggested that maybe next year we have an "online graduation." Shortly after, someone suggested that you could just upload your picture and have a website that would compose a picture of yourself with Dr. MacArthur.

i've been studying perl lately and i've been itching for a project to work on. so... here is a prototype. simply type in your name, upload your picture, and it's like you're really there!