It's F*ck1ng Cold

I hate the cold... The windows in my room might as well be open with the amount of cold air drafting under them. I have sweatshirts and other crap shoved at the bottom of the window, but it is STILL getting through. On top of that, the geniuses here at GRC thought it would be brilliant to have a fire drill at 10am this morning when it was 13 degrees with a wind chill of 0! If I wanted hypothermia for Christmas I would have asked for it, and I don't have class on Fridays so I wanted to sleep in. But nooooooo.... Jerks...

It's a new year

Yes, it is now the year two thousand and nine and my second semester of college starts tomorrow. In the break I spend 75% of my time working. But now I've got to batten down the hatches and throw my neck into the fray of learning again, except now I've got to give it 1000% (yes, that is one thousand, so I need 10 of me...) to keep things going. It is to be expected though, I did not perform to my, or my parents expectations. So now I'm in trouble across the board, and I'm the only one that can save it, or I'm gone... This one is for all the marbles.

I've done it again

Yep, I've fucked up a good thing... again. I don't think my scholarship will be around much longer because I HIGHLY doubt I will pass calculus. This time I'm not sure I can only blame myself, because even though I didn't put my best effort forward, I didn't just give up. This last test for example, there were two or three sections that he didn't even put on the test, and over half of it was focusing on one section (which fucked me over big time.) I should have dropped the class much earlier, or even better taken the AP credit. But no, I didn't feel "ready" and so I went ahead and stayed in the quicksand that is MATH 200 with Professor Ludwig Coco. What the hell am I gonna do? More importantly, is there anything I can do? Am I just one giant magnent for bad luck? Because it certainly seems like it, I mean sure I have my great things, but god damn if I haven't seen more than my fair share of bad luck/shitty experiences to last me more than my lifetime.

I got a new toy

I ordered a green laser pointer for $18 during the last woot-off and I just got it today. I was a little disappointed because we had some awesome fog last night and it would have been fun to mess around with it in the fog. In a dark room you can see the beam a little bit, but it just isn't the same. I need to be careful though, this thing is bright, it reflects a lot of these white walls that surround me.

Anyway, it is finally the last week of classes and I've got 90% of the stuff I need to do for this week done. I took my last calculus test tonight and I've got my essay finished for tomorrow. It is actually a good thing I went back over the guidelines because I thought it was one 1500 word essay for both people, not one 1500 word essay for each person. Oh well, I used my free time semi-wisely, I just need to stay focused better. One day down, seven left. Well nine if you count the weekend (or more if people don't finish presenting this week...)

I've done it...

Yes, I've registered for my spring semester classes. I was scheduled to take 18 credits, but since MATH 201 filled up before I could register (there was an issue with my hold and it wasn't removed until 9:30), but I love what I got.

So, without further ado:

Monday: Engineering 2-250 and again from 5-650

Tuesday: Physics 930-1045 and again from 3-450, FI 1230-145

Wednesday: Engineering 2-250, Physics 3-350

Thursday: Physics 930-1045, FI 1230-145, Philosophy 4-640

Friday: Zip, nada, nothing. Oh yeah!

That totals to 14 credits, but I've put in a request for an override into a MATH 201 class, but the one I requested isn't on Friday. I'm looking forward to next semester now.

Robotics and Exam season

With December just around the corner that means that exams are very near and there is only a month until Robotics starts up for the 2009 season. Yesterday showed a sign of what was to come. I volunteered yesterday at the FIRST workshops, which are meant to teach people the basics about the various parts, pieces, functions, and how to program the robots. So I spent over half of the day in Engineering East setting stuff up, signing people in, helping people find their way, kept the kids in line waiting for lunch (that was fun...), and then cleaning up after everyone and everything. And did we get a free lunch included? No, we got last dibs after everyone else, including the adult volunteers not connected to our student organization. Our club had to pay to order pizza for us because even though we were doing the bulk of the work, we weren't important.

Oh well, it was tiring, but I feel proud of what I did, I don't do it for the adults who fret about everything being perfect and make sure things are done right, I do it for the kids so they can stay interested in engineering and have fun doing it. Most of the adult volunteers have good intentions, but a few really could care less about the work myself or any other college student did yesterday, and it showed. It is sad to see when people think that just because they are older or hold more power, the ones working for them or under them mean nothing or know nothing. It's degrading, and not to mention it puts a general feeling in people that their help isn't needed. Enough ranting, my life doesn't suck that bad, I just complain too much. But nothing will change if you don't complain about it, you just need to be careful about how often you do it.

Anyway, I really am looking forward to the Robotics kickoff January 3rd, I have no possible clue what the game or challenge will be this year, but if the past trend continues, it isn't going to be easy.

Winter is here

Yes, it is my least favorite time of year. Winter is finally here and it showed possibly a things to come with that brief snow shower on Tuesday. I was pleasantly surprised to see it walking to class, until I realized that A) I wasn't wearing proper clothes to deal with the wind AND the cold and B) I was freeing about every extremity off and the snow was just making things worse. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow. I've grown up in a couple of places (Ohio and Missouri) where during the winter snow is common and you get more than 1/2 an inch. But the people around here bug me, one inkling of snow and they go into armageddon/YAY THEY'RE GONNA CANCEL SCHOOL mode. The first I find rather funny, the media around here sensationalizes a lot of things that really could be just left alone as normal news or weather. The latter just pisses me the hell off because I know that A) It most likely won't snow, and if it does it won't stick and B) I'm used to having to get a lot of snow (4-6 inches) to have school canceled, and that is if the roads weren't pretreated beforehand.

Actually, just last winter on a weekend we spent in West Virginia at a house in the mountains, my brother and I walked 2 miles to the house in 6 inches of snow during a near blizzard because my moms car couldn't make it up even the slightest incline. THAT is what I call snow, and THAT was probably one of the most fun times I've ever had in the snow (besides some sledding adventures I had in my younger years.) So with the cold comes the promise of me freezing my ass off day in and day out, no matter how many layers I wear. It sucks, I'm just skinny, I try to eat more to gain even a little weight, but my metabolism won't have anything to do with that. Oh well, I am hoping for some snow this year because I want to go on a day trip up into the mountains to go sledding or tubing, I haven't done either of those in a long time.