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Ahh, remember back in the good ol' days |
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5/6/04
"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body." ~Seneca Finally had my second soccer game. We won 2-1. We also finally had a decent number of players show up (16), so the playing time was cut down. Between that, and the disappointing fitness of the other team, I'm not even sore today. Hardly feels like soccer. I also remedied the problem with the baseball glove I don't remember if I showed this off when I threw together the rough version, but it's mostly finished now: Color Generator. Basically, it's a tool for figuring out color codes for web pages. I needed a way to preview colors and see what text colors were legible on them, and I didn't like what other people had written, so I scripted my own. The color wheel at the bottom was something really cool I found online, so I added it to the end. 5/3/04 "Life is a long lesson in humility" ~James M. Barrie Grades were due today, so here they are. One of them seems different than the others. I wish I could put my finger on it.
The end result is a 3.56 for the semester, and a 3.60 overall. I guess I can't complain too much. Manufacturing was lower than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised by fluids lab, though. I'm currently homeless for the next two weeks. I can't believe how much stuff I had to move. I really have no clue where it all came from. Now that it's summer, hopefully I will be able to spend more time working on the site. Notice the cool little notepad logo on the sidebar. That's right. No silly little WYSIWYG html generators here. I b3 t43 1337 ub0r h4x0r$! Ok, just kidding. 4/30/04 "Partying is such sweet sorrow." ~Robert Byrne I hate finals. It could've gone worse, but not much. I passed linear algebra, which doesn't make me any happier with the class. Last night, I didn't want to think about school at all, so I went to some parties with a bunch of the cross country guys. There were cops and public safety everywhere. The first party was trying to be quiet because most of the people there were under 21, and the police were driving past constantly. The next party got busted as we were walking up. The next one we heard the police were watching, so we didn't go, but as we were walking back to the cross country house, a bunch of police cars headed down the street in that direction with sirens on. Those were just the busts we knew about. Plus, someone in our group saw a SWAT van at one point. It was ridiculous. What were they expecting us to do? Have fun? Destress? Enjoy the fact that our misery is over for 4 months? Scandalous! They should go bug PSU. Their parties get more out of hand on schoolnights than anything that could've possibly happened here last night. Ridiculous. Oh, I have a house. I'll be living in a school-owned rental (I wonder if I can drink), for most of the summer. The price is decent, but it's not furnished. It also isn't open until May 15th, so I'll spend two weeks living on some friends' couch. They seem pretty cool about that. I need to get a baseball glove. I can't believe I've gone this long without my own baseball glove. 4/28/04 "Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea..." ~Peter, Paul, and Mary Extra credit on heat transfer. Name the song, based on a poem buy Ogden Nash and made popular in 1959 by this group. I knew it, but couldn't think of it. That was one of my lesser worries for that test. I'm so sick of this semester. I almost expect to get a bunch of e-mails from my teachers telling me we'll be having class next week. 4/26/04 "To perceive is to suffer." ~Aristotle Well, what a great way to start finals on the wrong foot. Dr. Murty starts handing out the fluids final and says something to the effect that the test ended up being a little harder than he intended to make it. So he gives us an extra 20 minutes. Gee, still didn't finish. I did manage to calculate that it takes 250 horsepower to push water through a 4 cm diameter pipe, though, which seems like an insane amount of power for so little flow. Three finals tommorrow, with linear algebra being the last one. I think I'm seriously in danger of getting a C in that class, which would be a first ever. If I really bomb the final it could be even lower. I'm sure it wouldn't take too much effort to flunk the class. I probably shouldn't spend all my time whining, so it's worth mentioning that I may have finally arranged a place to stay for the summer. One of my friends said they had one more room in a school owned house that would end up costing about 40% what living on campus would. He's supposed to be checking with the other guys to make sure it's ok and calling me back. I think I'd better remind him. 4/18/04 "When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web.... Now even my cat has its own page." ~Bill Clinton I hate to break it to poor old Bill, but physicists were probably the last people to hear about the internet...along with people from Arkansas. It's now dead week. For once it might actually live up to its name. That just means it will be less busy than the rest of the semester, not that there is actually little work to do. There are only six tests, 3 homeworks (that I know of), two project reports, a couple of miscellaneous meetings, a lot of packing, and a search for housing and a job between me and the end of the semester. My four tests last week, thankfully, seemed to go much better than linear algebra. I'm so sick of that class. Discrete structures and partial differentials better not be so messed up. Speaking of which, I wish I could remember who I loaned my ordinary differentials book to. I could really use it for backup. I bet they sold it, because it's been missing all semester. My first soccer game was Wednesday evening. We lost, but it was pretty close. It was frustrating, because I had hardly any sleep and I could not accelerate. Still, I'm sooo glad to be playing again. 4/12/04 "If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." ~Seneca Yay for Easter! Ok, I know, it's more than just a three day weekend, but that doesn't lessen my appreciation of the day off school. I got a lot of non-school-related stuff done, so there's less of that hanging over my head. Plus, I went sailing, for the first time in years. It was pretty fun, in spite of inexperience, engine trouble, halyards disconnecting themselves, etc. Fortunately, I was prepared for how bad my linear algebra test would be, so it didn't quite spoil my day. Maybe I will get my manufacturing test, which went well, back before the shock from math wears off. 4/7/04 "You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance." ~Ray Bradbury I finally heard back from residence life about the summer assistant building manager position: Rejected. In their words, "Your strengths do not meet the needs of this position." Ouch! I'm not sure what I will do about housing now, because I'm not going to pay $650/month just to live on campus. It was half of that last year when I lived in Christie. Speaking of painful disappointment, I had a linear algebra test today. I had all the relevant equations in my head, and I felt somewhat, not totally because there aren't enough hours in the day for everything right now, but somewhat ready. As soon as I looked at the first problem, all my studying was gone. I may as well have spent the night playing video games. Tomorrow is manufacturing. Wednesday is thermo, Thursday is heat transfer, and Friday is fluids. Then finals start. In short, my optimism for the week from my last post was premature. 4/4/04 "Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious" ~Peter Ustinov I had a different quote in mind, but ran into that one while trying to find the source of it. It seemed relevant since Peter Ustinov, who played Nero in Quo Vadis and the crazy general in Viva Max, died last week. The broken record is still playing the "it's been a busy week" track. Hopefully, this next one will be the last really bad one. Last week it was a project, RCC interviews, housing, and sunshine. Next week, it will be fluids lab (again), RCC interviews, holy week, scholarship and work applications, and sunshine. It's hard to do schoolwork when I can see people playing soccer from my window. I'm finally going to see The Passion on Friday. A local church is renting out a theatre for one showing and offering discounts tickets to parishoners and friends. 3/28/04 "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." ~John Kennedy I guess I should've gotten a lot more done today, but it was too nice to sit in my room doing math. Instead I played soccer for a while and then rode my bike for a while. Plus the athletic department was selling last year's extra gear, so I went to check that out. I was hoping for a soccer jersey, like they had the last time they did this sale, but no dice. Probably about time to get started on school. RCC interviews are supposed to be this week and I'm supposed to help with those. Hopefully they don't take up too much of my time. 3/25/04 "Traffic is slow between Highway 99E and Newberg. There's a McDonald's on fire" ~Morning Traffic Report That was a weird one to hear. Something seems almost perversely funny about it. Hanging in there, I guess. Did ok, but no better on the two tests I got back. Back to work now 3/17/04 "Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house." ~Jewish Proverb I'm definitely not in the greatest mood right now. To start with, this week has been killing me. I've had about six hours of sleep so far, although I should be able to double that tonight. I managed to score in the bottom third of the class on the heat transfer test. Let's hope on the next one we get problems of a type we've seen before, unlike that one and two others I've taken this semester. I did get RCC director, but I managed to forget about our meeting last night because I was dead tired and I still had a lot left to do. Great way to start my tenure. Plus they're now talking about having the director work extra hours (paid) in the support center, which would take time away from Telecom. The latest nail in my coffin, which is now more iron than wood, was housing selection tonight. Our group did get a unit, but Res Life didn't tell anyone that they were only allowing 5 groups to room 6 people in the 6 room houses (one person could pay extra for the double) until the 5 were gone. That killed our plan. So, we had to force two people to share a double, and no one wanted to. So now we've got two people who don't really know each other sharing a room. Welcome back to freshmen year guys! I felt really low asking them to take it, because it effectively placed all six people's chance at row housing on their decision. How fun! Another formal lab report (10 hours) and a lab memo (4 hours) for a second experiment due next week in my class that's worth 1 credit! No presentation (2.5 hours) this week, though. 3/11/04 "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?" ~Edgar Bergen Well, I just finished a relaxing eleven and a half hour day at work. I came in around 10:30, took a lunch at 1:00, and finished at...hmmm, 10:30. Incredible how I can go through that much work and feel relaxed afterwards, but 4 hours of class leaves me burned out. We spent that time replacing a bunch of old network equipment in the library, and they wanted it done after they closed for the day. Most of that time was actually used cleaning up the mess of old stuff, which wasn't installed very neatly, plus we didn't have enough of the right kind of cable, so we had to jury rig some temporary cables. I'm definitely not getting as much done this week as I had planned, but more than nothing. Plus, a couple of my teachers decided to postpone some of the larger assignments. I really haven't felt like doing schoolwork because I finish work for the day still feeling exhausted from a week ago. 3/5/04 "A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind." ~Thales I guess I've been talking a lot about being busy lately. In case you've had doubts, here's the list of stuff due the week after break.
My estimates (which always fall short) for time each will take add up to 46 hours, if I don't have any problems. Incredible! I have 46 hours worth of homework assigned for Spring Break! Plus, that doesn't include the test, or the projects I'm supposed to be working on in fluids and in manufacturing. Don't forget I'm supposed to spend 19 hours in classrooms, 10 hours at work, plus another 10 hours for senate, RCC, and ASME stuff each week. When there's time, my hobbies include eating and sleeping and occasionally trying to retain the things I "learn." 3/2/04 "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." ~John Lennon Well that's just great John, but I've been too busy to notice this whole life thing. I Still don't have spring break plans. Too busy to even think about it. Although my teachers seem to be thinking for me, since I probably have about 10-12 assignments and projects due for my 7 classes the week after break, plus there's what's left this week. I guess I never even mentioned that SWE job fair was Monday. I just barely managed to squeeze it in between math class and senate. I plan on following up on 4 contacts, and I think 3 of them could lead to interviews I probably also didn't mention that I decided to move to row housing next year. I'm still trying to get enough guys together, but I think we've got it now. Fortunately, if we don't make it in this year, we can still live in Christie, unlike last year. Applications are due Friday, just to make the week more pleasant. I also didn't talk about being sick. At first I thought it was strept throat, then I was worried about mono, then it went away for a few days, now it's back, but less. I hate it. I slept most of the weekend a week ago, and still didn't feel like moving and couldn't concentrate for half the week. For a while I could hardly even read. Plus my throat was really sore. Then it went away on Thursday and started up again yesterday afternoon. Today, my throat is better but I've got a headache and I'm still worn out. This needs to stop. |