Classes and video games
I'm just going to skip right on past the part where I apologize for not posting for three months.
Let's see, the quarter's over. It's been an eventful one. I was taking math 5a, physics 3, physics 3 lab, cs40 and music 17. CS40 was probably my hardest class: Discrete mathematics- that is, the study of mathematics on the integers. We covered boolean logic, modular arithmetic, countability, infinite countability, proofs by contradiction, contraposition and induction, advanced counting techniques such as permutations and combinations, linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relations, and more. This anecdote should give you somewhat of an idea of what the class was like:
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Two of my friends, Sean and Mason, worked with me in cs40. We were working on a particular problem. I won't go into what the particulars of this problem were, (I already feel like I'm pushing my luck with people just skipping over this entry by listing the topics covered in cs40,) but the answer I determined was the function "x (mod 3)," which is a function that means, essentially, "divide x by 3 and take the remainder." Well, in the second part of the problem, we were supposed to find an infinite number of infinite subsets, and as I considered how I could extrapolate my solution to this, I asked Sean: "What's infinity (mod 3)?"
Sean stared at me, pushed both of his hands into his hair, and asked: "You're trying to divide infinity by 3 and take the remainder?"
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Yeah, that was pretty much cs40. Anyway, I just got word that I pulled an A- in that class, so I'm happy about that. The math 5a professor gave an absolutely evil final, so I don't know how that's going to turn out, even though I had a really high grade going into the test. The physics test was crap, as you might expect. Don't really have much more to say on this subject.
On a more cheerful note, I've been spending the entire break playing Dragon Age: Origins which is one of the most awesome PC games I've ever played, competing only with Portal, which can't really find an equal in my eyes. It brings me back to the days of middle school where I was pretty much a walking, talking Encyclopedia of Arda, about 3 rewatches of Lord of the Rings away from introducing myself as: "Suilad! Jessica i eneth nin." As in all games based on the D&D system, I chose rogue as my class, and decided what the hell, there's no way the group will ever play with elves in D&D, I might as well indulge my guilty pleasure side and be an elf. Well, to my delight, elves are not portrayed exactly as they are in other fantasy settings, (most notably Lord of the Rings,) but rather as poor servants of the humans, and my character gets racist comments left and right. I know you might think it's strange to be excited about being on the receiving end of racist comments, but it's just one of those things where I really start to think that the choices I make in the game matter, and that the game could take a different direction if I choose wrong at any particular juncture.
The controls are just awesome, too. I don't know why any other games of this genre, (that I've played,) haven't had the functionality to switch between top-down tactical view, (useful for combat,) and Legend of Zelda-style 3rd person. The graphics are totally beautiful, although combat is brutal, so if you have a weak stomach I wouldn't suggest watching it in 3rd person.
Top-down, tactical view.
This is actually a cutscene, but I didn't have any screenshots of 3rd person. It kind of looks like this, though.
It's times like this I wish I had a superpowerful gaming computer, but mine is running it fairly well, anyway.
Posting this entry has made me realize I should be playing Dragon Age right now. See you guys later.
Let's see, the quarter's over. It's been an eventful one. I was taking math 5a, physics 3, physics 3 lab, cs40 and music 17. CS40 was probably my hardest class: Discrete mathematics- that is, the study of mathematics on the integers. We covered boolean logic, modular arithmetic, countability, infinite countability, proofs by contradiction, contraposition and induction, advanced counting techniques such as permutations and combinations, linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relations, and more. This anecdote should give you somewhat of an idea of what the class was like:
---
Two of my friends, Sean and Mason, worked with me in cs40. We were working on a particular problem. I won't go into what the particulars of this problem were, (I already feel like I'm pushing my luck with people just skipping over this entry by listing the topics covered in cs40,) but the answer I determined was the function "x (mod 3)," which is a function that means, essentially, "divide x by 3 and take the remainder." Well, in the second part of the problem, we were supposed to find an infinite number of infinite subsets, and as I considered how I could extrapolate my solution to this, I asked Sean: "What's infinity (mod 3)?"
Sean stared at me, pushed both of his hands into his hair, and asked: "You're trying to divide infinity by 3 and take the remainder?"
---
Yeah, that was pretty much cs40. Anyway, I just got word that I pulled an A- in that class, so I'm happy about that. The math 5a professor gave an absolutely evil final, so I don't know how that's going to turn out, even though I had a really high grade going into the test. The physics test was crap, as you might expect. Don't really have much more to say on this subject.
On a more cheerful note, I've been spending the entire break playing Dragon Age: Origins which is one of the most awesome PC games I've ever played, competing only with Portal, which can't really find an equal in my eyes. It brings me back to the days of middle school where I was pretty much a walking, talking Encyclopedia of Arda, about 3 rewatches of Lord of the Rings away from introducing myself as: "Suilad! Jessica i eneth nin." As in all games based on the D&D system, I chose rogue as my class, and decided what the hell, there's no way the group will ever play with elves in D&D, I might as well indulge my guilty pleasure side and be an elf. Well, to my delight, elves are not portrayed exactly as they are in other fantasy settings, (most notably Lord of the Rings,) but rather as poor servants of the humans, and my character gets racist comments left and right. I know you might think it's strange to be excited about being on the receiving end of racist comments, but it's just one of those things where I really start to think that the choices I make in the game matter, and that the game could take a different direction if I choose wrong at any particular juncture.
The controls are just awesome, too. I don't know why any other games of this genre, (that I've played,) haven't had the functionality to switch between top-down tactical view, (useful for combat,) and Legend of Zelda-style 3rd person. The graphics are totally beautiful, although combat is brutal, so if you have a weak stomach I wouldn't suggest watching it in 3rd person.
Top-down, tactical view.
This is actually a cutscene, but I didn't have any screenshots of 3rd person. It kind of looks like this, though.
It's times like this I wish I had a superpowerful gaming computer, but mine is running it fairly well, anyway.
Posting this entry has made me realize I should be playing Dragon Age right now. See you guys later.