I am just in a bad mood today, and I honestly can’t really justify it. I mean, I have a Calc quiz in an hour and change, but that isn’t really my problem… It could be lack of good sleep, but I felt good when I woke up.
Perhaps it’s just PMS.
calculus
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Actual exchange with Professor:
S) Hi, I had a question about problem blah.
T) We covered that in class, perhaps you should review your notes.
S) But I did and I still have trouble understanding it.
T) Well, perhaps you should review the chapter.
S) . o O ( Like I wouldn’t have thought of that, dumbass )
S) I did.
T) Well perhaps you should try these problems in the back of the book
(note: one of the problems he recommended was _THE_ question i was asking for help with).
Take a guess as to whether I dropped the course or not.
Slowly Recovering
Things are slowly starting to balance out in my life. I still will probably have to widthdraw from Calculus, and I am still very depressed re: that, but so it goes. Chuck visited me this weekend, which was very well-timed on his part. Chuck always does a wonderful job of helping me forget all my worldly troubles and simply making me laugh. Chuck has been my best friend since High School, and I treasure that.
Chuck rides trials, which is a cousin of mountain biking where you hop and ride over all kinds of obstacles. Anyway, Chuck was interested in making a short video of his riding while he was in Rochester. He brought a MiniDV camera, which have restored my faith in videocameras. We probably got down like 45 minutes of footage, which will probably distill into 15-20 minutes once all the bloopers are edited out. He said he was going to continue shooting when he got home too.
Friday night we went to go see “Scary Movie”, which was entertaining. Many of you know that I am a ‘movie guy’, and that I watch alot of horror movies too… This film wasn’t exactly a parody of horror movies in general, instead focusing on “Scream”, “I Know What You Did…”, etc (which were parodies in themselves, to a degree). I guess I enjoyed “Scary Movie”, but a parody of a parody can only go so far.
I also replaced the two blown speakers with a pair of Definitive Technologies satellites, which sound extrodinary. They were much larger (and heavier) than the JBLs that they replaced, but they will also handle the power the Amplifer is tossing out more better. I look forward to settling down a bit so I can really go crazy with my Home Theater setup… :P
Jon (my roommate during the school year) is going to be in Rochester for a one-night limited engagement, this evening. He is up for the Computer Science House orientation party, which I will also be attending tonight. It will be good to see him, but unfortunately he has to go back to NJ tomorrow. He will be coming back later this summer, however, which is cool.
So yeah, while I haven’t yet returned to level, the angle of my life is no longer threatening to dump me off the side. Let’s hope things continue that way.
Sigh…
Didja ever have one of those days?
I go to Calc yesterday, and find out I tanked the Calc 3 exam… I am considering dropping the class now; After seeing the profs grading style (very little partial credit), and talking with him a few times, I don’t see myself eeking through the course. I am going to talk with him again on Monday, and ask him whether or not I should continue. Hopefully he can provide insight, although he has been pretty useless in the ‘advice and help’ department up through now.
I get home from class, and there is nothing to eat, so I go to Wegmans. I decide on Cheese Steaks, and purchase all the necessary items. When I go to get rolls, there are no Sub rolls, no Sausage rolls, hell, no hotdog rolls. So I reluctantly purchased hamburger rolls to fit the bill…
When I get home from Wegmans, (roommate James) tells me “Sean, Bad News: Just after you left before, I heard this god-awful noise. The stereo turned itself up to 80 and it sounds like your two front speakers are hosed”. And, they are hosed.
Just when you think things can’t get worse, they always do. I am the first to admit I haven’t been very chipper this summer, but stuff like this isn’t making things any better. I usually have a very positive outlook on things in my life, but this whole Calculus thing really has me feeling like a failure. Why is it that a non-major course is the one that is giving me the most trouble?
Post Trauma
Well, that was definately a difficult exam…. I am not sure how I did; Some questions were not that bad, while others I simply couldn’t answer. This guy doesn’t grade on a typical scale, so I guess I will have to wait until I get the exam back to even guess what letter grade I got.
Packing, Packing, Packing
I always overpack. Tomorrow I am heading out to California, to tour the Bay Area/Silicon Valley. I will be staying with Chris while I am out there, and I will be meeting up with Scot Hacker, Dave Bort (and his place of employment, Be, Inc.), Chuck Lapp (who is working for Crystal Dynamics currently), and Pink-Haired Kate. It will be wonderful seeing Kate and Chuck, because I haven’t seen either of them in a few years. And although I have seen Bort recently, It will be good to see what he is doing over at Be (which, as you can imagine, is exciting for me… *l*)
It is always good to see old friends, and in the case of Scot, I will be meeting him in person for the first time. For those of you who may not know, Scot is the author of the BeOS Bible, MP3: The Definitive Guide, and is also one of the editors that works with me over at BeNews. I have talked with Scot in one capacity or another for many years now, but we have never met face to face…
This whole internet thing is so odd… Sometimes I don’t understand how society continues to function with it, and other times I can’t imagine life without it… Computers have always been a part of my life.. Some of my first memories are my father taking me to a junior programming class at the local high-school. I can’t remember how old I was at the time, but to give you some perspective, I was writing BASIC on a Commodore PET loading its software off a cassette drive. Sometime after that my grandparents bought me a Commodore 64, and later my father bought a modem. I would say that I wasn’t past 4th grade by the time I dialed a BBS… So e-mail, programming, all this data, is all so familiar to me. I don’t say that to show off (or compensate for a ‘lack’ of something :P), but I am just trying to create perspective.. I take it all for granted, completely, and that really frightens me at times… Sometimes I look at an iMac and see a ugly, green machine for idiots; Other times I see it for what it is: The perfect machine for beginners running an OS that, while frustrating many advanced users, is perfect for people who have never looked at a computer before.
Anyway, back to the point, I am really looking forward to seeing all these people, but I guess there is special excitement for me in meeting Scot. I guess there is something special about a face-to-face meeting, and that is something that computers will be hard-pressed to replace….. Thankfully… :)
Integration Sucks
I ended up taking off from work today so I could continue my studying of Calc, in preparation for the big ol’ exam tonight. I feel kinda bad about this since I will be leaving for CA tomorrow morning… Ah well…
Calculus
It is always difficult to convince myself to work on Calculus. It is eerie when I contemplate the fact that while Calculus is possibly the most difficult class I have keeping me from graduation, the limit of my motivation to work on Calc approaches 0.
I worked quite late on homework last night, and subsequently got into work quite late this morning, after trying to catch up on sleep. Quiz tonight, exam on Wednesday…. I hate this damn class…
I can’t believe how many errors and flaws there were in my last update.. I posted some corrections as a comment, but that didn’t even scratch the surface… Hopefully that isn’t typical, but hell, this is _my_ journal, so I don’t feel too bad. :P