Brushing the dust off this thing
It's been a while since I actually posted anything substantial to this. It had really gotten to the point I was thinking of deleting all the back entries, and just keeping it for a friends page. I went so far as actually going back through old entries to delete them before I realized how nice it was when I was actually writing stuff. Thus I've resolved, at least for the time being, to harken back to the days of Freshman and Sophomore years when livejournal actually got updates that were not "Check out my quiz result. You should take it too." Hmm... I'm using a new livejournal client and it just turned my quoted text pink. We'll see whether it posts that way.
The following cut has a description of my recent computer upgrades, for those who care.
This section isn't complete without giving major props to Sir William the Miller. Absolutely no way I could have managed this without him.
Sophomore year I managed to fry the motherboard on my original "for college" PC. Since Dell had a pretty good deal going at the time, I just bought a new comp, and the old one (an HP) was given to my dad, since he expressed some interest in fixing it, which would represent a significant improvement over the current home computer). Eventually he did replace the motherboard, and for several months, they had the HP running at home. Then came the day when it wouldn't turn on anymore. I fought with it when I was home, got nowhere. Eventually, they pick up another used computer, and I reinherit the HP. I was torn between scrapping it except for the harddrive, and trying to fix it to have a second PC. Eventually, I take it over to aforementioned Will's apartment, and one new power supply later, the old HP is back in action.
Now, what would a person do with two computers? Obviously network them and have a handy means of doing backups. To sweeten the deal, I picked up Linux for Dummies which came with a DVD distribution of Fedora Core 3. After a surprisingly small amount of pain, I had turned the HP into a linux box.
A few more pieces of hardware were added for Christmas - I replaced my crap DVD burner with a speedier, more reliable Sony. I picked up a router that was on sale. And last but not least a video input switcher box.
After a slightly more painful time, I got the system set up how I wanted. Now, "Mario" (my Dell) and "Luigi" are able to play nicely together, with Luigi checking certain directories and copying their contents on a weekly basis, as well as allowing me to login to work from home when I so choose. I didn't even have to forsake my dual monitor format - the input switcher allows me to go between having two desktops on Mario and 1 for Mario, 1 for Luigi. I know this is nerdy, but it is really freakin' sweet.
And once again, thank you Mr. Miller!
So now that the computer nerdiness is done, what else is going on?
Classes have been going for a week and a half now. I'm taking three courses:
Chem 495WR: Honors Thesis
Chem 536: Statistical Mechanics
Math 221: Linear Algebra
I had a hard time choosing which grad course to do. None of my options really fell into the category of "first grad course", most were continuations of the previous semester. I was really choosing between 536 and 524, which was Organic Spectroscopy, and the 4th and final course in the introductory graduate organic sequence. I went to two sessions of that class, but it just moved too fast and created too much work. Stat Mech is probably just as difficult (albeit extremely different material), but the class is small, the professor is really nice, and it could be useful in my research work. Hopefully this one was for the best. Have I mentioned lately I'm so ready to be done with all this?
The other main thing in my life thus far has been dealing with a big part of it not being here. Jenn leaves for Mexico tomorrow morning at 7:10 AM. She'll be there until May 4. I keep telling myself that the time will just fly by (and I sure hope it does). I'm not sure yet what kind of contact I'll be able to have with her while she's down there - it may be restricted to biweekly phone calls & very slow letters. Apparently it takes over two weeks for mail to get to her research station. She'll be in the southern part of the Baja peninsula, playing with whales and sea turtles. Heck of a way to spend your last semester in school, right?
Meanwhile, the job hunt is ready to begin in full force. On Friday, Emory is having recruiters out for the Spring Career Fair. I'm not expecting much in the way of interest in Chemistry, but I figure it can't hurt to explore, since I'm not exactly devoted to working in my major anyway. I sent off my resume to be critiques by the career center, but I don't think I especially liked their feedback. I figure since I don't think I'll have too much that's especially promising, maybe I can ask some of the recruiting people what they think of my resume, content-wise. It's very heavy on education because, shocker, that's about all I have. I mean, I've been in school for seventeen years. Before school, I was quite adept at building with blocks. Somehow I don't think that needs to make my resume.
And on a final, humorous, note - if you haven't seen this, you should. And then you should thank Emily for sharing it with me:
http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/
The following cut has a description of my recent computer upgrades, for those who care.
This section isn't complete without giving major props to Sir William the Miller. Absolutely no way I could have managed this without him.
Sophomore year I managed to fry the motherboard on my original "for college" PC. Since Dell had a pretty good deal going at the time, I just bought a new comp, and the old one (an HP) was given to my dad, since he expressed some interest in fixing it, which would represent a significant improvement over the current home computer). Eventually he did replace the motherboard, and for several months, they had the HP running at home. Then came the day when it wouldn't turn on anymore. I fought with it when I was home, got nowhere. Eventually, they pick up another used computer, and I reinherit the HP. I was torn between scrapping it except for the harddrive, and trying to fix it to have a second PC. Eventually, I take it over to aforementioned Will's apartment, and one new power supply later, the old HP is back in action.
Now, what would a person do with two computers? Obviously network them and have a handy means of doing backups. To sweeten the deal, I picked up Linux for Dummies which came with a DVD distribution of Fedora Core 3. After a surprisingly small amount of pain, I had turned the HP into a linux box.
A few more pieces of hardware were added for Christmas - I replaced my crap DVD burner with a speedier, more reliable Sony. I picked up a router that was on sale. And last but not least a video input switcher box.
After a slightly more painful time, I got the system set up how I wanted. Now, "Mario" (my Dell) and "Luigi" are able to play nicely together, with Luigi checking certain directories and copying their contents on a weekly basis, as well as allowing me to login to work from home when I so choose. I didn't even have to forsake my dual monitor format - the input switcher allows me to go between having two desktops on Mario and 1 for Mario, 1 for Luigi. I know this is nerdy, but it is really freakin' sweet.
And once again, thank you Mr. Miller!
So now that the computer nerdiness is done, what else is going on?
Classes have been going for a week and a half now. I'm taking three courses:
Chem 495WR: Honors Thesis
Chem 536: Statistical Mechanics
Math 221: Linear Algebra
I had a hard time choosing which grad course to do. None of my options really fell into the category of "first grad course", most were continuations of the previous semester. I was really choosing between 536 and 524, which was Organic Spectroscopy, and the 4th and final course in the introductory graduate organic sequence. I went to two sessions of that class, but it just moved too fast and created too much work. Stat Mech is probably just as difficult (albeit extremely different material), but the class is small, the professor is really nice, and it could be useful in my research work. Hopefully this one was for the best. Have I mentioned lately I'm so ready to be done with all this?
The other main thing in my life thus far has been dealing with a big part of it not being here. Jenn leaves for Mexico tomorrow morning at 7:10 AM. She'll be there until May 4. I keep telling myself that the time will just fly by (and I sure hope it does). I'm not sure yet what kind of contact I'll be able to have with her while she's down there - it may be restricted to biweekly phone calls & very slow letters. Apparently it takes over two weeks for mail to get to her research station. She'll be in the southern part of the Baja peninsula, playing with whales and sea turtles. Heck of a way to spend your last semester in school, right?
Meanwhile, the job hunt is ready to begin in full force. On Friday, Emory is having recruiters out for the Spring Career Fair. I'm not expecting much in the way of interest in Chemistry, but I figure it can't hurt to explore, since I'm not exactly devoted to working in my major anyway. I sent off my resume to be critiques by the career center, but I don't think I especially liked their feedback. I figure since I don't think I'll have too much that's especially promising, maybe I can ask some of the recruiting people what they think of my resume, content-wise. It's very heavy on education because, shocker, that's about all I have. I mean, I've been in school for seventeen years. Before school, I was quite adept at building with blocks. Somehow I don't think that needs to make my resume.
And on a final, humorous, note - if you haven't seen this, you should. And then you should thank Emily for sharing it with me:
http://www.ultimateshowdown.org/