The Big Two-Oh
Yup, today was my 20th birthday. And, what better way to spend it than.....being....in class. Hard to believe I have left behind the crappiness of being a teenager and crossed over to the wonderful world of semi-adulthood. Funny, I don't feel older....I guess I'll start to feel older when the electric, water, and cable bills come in and I have to curse loudly before cutting a check to the respective companies.
Speaking of cutting checks, I have to get a hold of the EGADS sponsor so that I can get her to sign this bank form. Basically it says that I, as the treasurer, have the authority to do banking stuff on behalf of the club. I need the sponsor's signature as well as the previous treasurer, so that the name can be changed. I can't put it off any longer.
I guess that now since I've finally been to all my classes I can talk about them all in one fell swoop. Here goes:
-CS 337- Theory In Programming Practice
This class is taught by one of those real smart, old, Indian guys. Which is really cool, since he's such a great teacher. You can't understand him sometimes, but he still manages to get the gist across to us. It seems like it's going to be real programming-intensive, unlike 336, which was all logic and no programming. You're allowed programming partners in this class, so that's going to make it real easy. Provided I can get off my lazy ass and actually do the work. Altogether this seems like a worthwhile class, but it will be challenging.
-PHY 317L- Physics Semester 2 - Electricity and Magnetism
Not much to talk about here, it's basically an extension of PHY 317K, which I took last semester and got an A in. I even managed to get the class that's taught by the same guy. He's a good teacher, even though the material may be hard he does his darndest best to explain it to us lowly non-physics majors. He also likes to call on people in class, which is a definite sleep repellent. Also, as an added bonus, Ray and Brent from the CS FIG are in the class with me. Hopefully with a little bit of work I can pull off an A again.
-CS 347- Data Management
God this class is boring. The teacher is one of those adjunct professors - meaning that he has a REAL job at Oracle and does teaching at UT on the side. Too bad he really doesn't know how to teach and his lectures are sleep inducing. He seems to know what he's talking about, which is definitely a plus, but he can't effectively communicate what he's thinking to the class. It's not that bad - most of what you're supposed to learn in this class you learn by doing and not by listening to him, but it makes sitting through and hour and a half of his lecture quite an ordeal, especially when it's 5-6:30 in the afternoon and you just wanna go home. Andrew from my Probability class is in there with me, though, so at least I have someone to suffer with me.
-CS 352- Computer Architecture 2
This class only meets once a week, on Monday from 4-7. Three hours long - holy shit. It's tough doing ANYTHING for 3 hours straight, let alone a CS class. The first day of class was short, though - the teacher had to fly to California for something, and his assisstant took over. The assisstant went over in about 30 minutes what the real teacher would have taken about 90 minutes going over. Score. This class is going to have a lot in common with CS 310 and EE 316, which I took last semester and also got an A in. The projects will be harder, but we only meet once a week, and not next week, since Labor Day is next Monday and we get a 3-day weekend. Mwahaha.
-UTS 101- UTeach Step 1
This is probably the most interesting class I'm taking. I followed yall's advice and signed up for the UTeach program. I'm going to try teaching out for a semester and see if I'm any good at it. If I am, and I enjoy doing it, I'll continue the program, but if I'm not, then I have every right to stop after this semester is up. It looks like it will be fun, though. We each got a partner the first day, and we'll be learning together how to do all the stuff we have to do. We'll be student teaching 3 days at an East Austin elementary school. I suppose they'll contact us as to which one it is soon, since the first observation is on the 21st, I think. I'm real excited to try this out, and we'll see what happens.
-PHY 117N- The lab that goes with PHY 317L
God I hate this class. So much. It's 3 hours out of the week, and it's going to take the full 3 hours every time unlike last semester, when we were usually done an hour or two early. Plus, there's lots of extra stuff we have to do on the lab report that we didn't have to do before, like TYPING it. Ugh. I'm definitely not looking forward to THAT. I'm trying to get my class time changed from 5-8 W to 11-2 W so that I can actually attend the EGADS meetings. I'm sure they weren't too happy not having their treasurer there at the first meeting. I did warn them ahead of time, but I didn't think it was going to be THIS bad. Yeah, thank God after this semester I'll never have to worry about physics again, at least in a classroom.
Those are all my classes. Here's hoping I score A's on all of 'em!
So, what else have I been doing lately? We're starting to actually cook real food at the apartment now. Yesterday was teriyaki chicken, which was alright, but the sauce was a little too tangy. Overall it was good, though. Tonight was hot dog night since we were all there at different times of the day. In honor of my birthday I made my famous chili cheese dip to put on the hotdogs and of course to dip Fritos in. They're not really Fritos, mind you - they're imitation store-brand Fritos that were cheaper. Hehe.
David is coming up to Austin this weekend. Tomorrow(Friday) we're all going to go see METALLICAAAAAA at the Erwin Center. I think Godsmack will be there too, I hope I have a good time, seeing as how it's my first rock concert and all. On Saturday we're going to the first UT football game of the season. It'll be against North Texas (their mascot is called the Mean Green......hehe) and we're expecting a blowout victory on Saturday. I probably just jinxed it though, meh. On Sunday, well, I dunno what I'll be doing - probably a little grocery shopping. I won't have to worry about homework, though - it's a 3 day weekend! Again, mwahahaha.
Other than all that, I've been replaying through Super Mario RPG and Lunar, the latter so that I can return it to Marc and borrow the second game. Mario is fun as always, and so is Lunar, mainly because my two roommates keep making fun of the voice acting in the game. Hehe, it is actually quite funny.
That's all I got. Peace out.
Speaking of cutting checks, I have to get a hold of the EGADS sponsor so that I can get her to sign this bank form. Basically it says that I, as the treasurer, have the authority to do banking stuff on behalf of the club. I need the sponsor's signature as well as the previous treasurer, so that the name can be changed. I can't put it off any longer.
I guess that now since I've finally been to all my classes I can talk about them all in one fell swoop. Here goes:
-CS 337- Theory In Programming Practice
This class is taught by one of those real smart, old, Indian guys. Which is really cool, since he's such a great teacher. You can't understand him sometimes, but he still manages to get the gist across to us. It seems like it's going to be real programming-intensive, unlike 336, which was all logic and no programming. You're allowed programming partners in this class, so that's going to make it real easy. Provided I can get off my lazy ass and actually do the work. Altogether this seems like a worthwhile class, but it will be challenging.
-PHY 317L- Physics Semester 2 - Electricity and Magnetism
Not much to talk about here, it's basically an extension of PHY 317K, which I took last semester and got an A in. I even managed to get the class that's taught by the same guy. He's a good teacher, even though the material may be hard he does his darndest best to explain it to us lowly non-physics majors. He also likes to call on people in class, which is a definite sleep repellent. Also, as an added bonus, Ray and Brent from the CS FIG are in the class with me. Hopefully with a little bit of work I can pull off an A again.
-CS 347- Data Management
God this class is boring. The teacher is one of those adjunct professors - meaning that he has a REAL job at Oracle and does teaching at UT on the side. Too bad he really doesn't know how to teach and his lectures are sleep inducing. He seems to know what he's talking about, which is definitely a plus, but he can't effectively communicate what he's thinking to the class. It's not that bad - most of what you're supposed to learn in this class you learn by doing and not by listening to him, but it makes sitting through and hour and a half of his lecture quite an ordeal, especially when it's 5-6:30 in the afternoon and you just wanna go home. Andrew from my Probability class is in there with me, though, so at least I have someone to suffer with me.
-CS 352- Computer Architecture 2
This class only meets once a week, on Monday from 4-7. Three hours long - holy shit. It's tough doing ANYTHING for 3 hours straight, let alone a CS class. The first day of class was short, though - the teacher had to fly to California for something, and his assisstant took over. The assisstant went over in about 30 minutes what the real teacher would have taken about 90 minutes going over. Score. This class is going to have a lot in common with CS 310 and EE 316, which I took last semester and also got an A in. The projects will be harder, but we only meet once a week, and not next week, since Labor Day is next Monday and we get a 3-day weekend. Mwahaha.
-UTS 101- UTeach Step 1
This is probably the most interesting class I'm taking. I followed yall's advice and signed up for the UTeach program. I'm going to try teaching out for a semester and see if I'm any good at it. If I am, and I enjoy doing it, I'll continue the program, but if I'm not, then I have every right to stop after this semester is up. It looks like it will be fun, though. We each got a partner the first day, and we'll be learning together how to do all the stuff we have to do. We'll be student teaching 3 days at an East Austin elementary school. I suppose they'll contact us as to which one it is soon, since the first observation is on the 21st, I think. I'm real excited to try this out, and we'll see what happens.
-PHY 117N- The lab that goes with PHY 317L
God I hate this class. So much. It's 3 hours out of the week, and it's going to take the full 3 hours every time unlike last semester, when we were usually done an hour or two early. Plus, there's lots of extra stuff we have to do on the lab report that we didn't have to do before, like TYPING it. Ugh. I'm definitely not looking forward to THAT. I'm trying to get my class time changed from 5-8 W to 11-2 W so that I can actually attend the EGADS meetings. I'm sure they weren't too happy not having their treasurer there at the first meeting. I did warn them ahead of time, but I didn't think it was going to be THIS bad. Yeah, thank God after this semester I'll never have to worry about physics again, at least in a classroom.
Those are all my classes. Here's hoping I score A's on all of 'em!
So, what else have I been doing lately? We're starting to actually cook real food at the apartment now. Yesterday was teriyaki chicken, which was alright, but the sauce was a little too tangy. Overall it was good, though. Tonight was hot dog night since we were all there at different times of the day. In honor of my birthday I made my famous chili cheese dip to put on the hotdogs and of course to dip Fritos in. They're not really Fritos, mind you - they're imitation store-brand Fritos that were cheaper. Hehe.
David is coming up to Austin this weekend. Tomorrow(Friday) we're all going to go see METALLICAAAAAA at the Erwin Center. I think Godsmack will be there too, I hope I have a good time, seeing as how it's my first rock concert and all. On Saturday we're going to the first UT football game of the season. It'll be against North Texas (their mascot is called the Mean Green......hehe) and we're expecting a blowout victory on Saturday. I probably just jinxed it though, meh. On Sunday, well, I dunno what I'll be doing - probably a little grocery shopping. I won't have to worry about homework, though - it's a 3 day weekend! Again, mwahahaha.
Other than all that, I've been replaying through Super Mario RPG and Lunar, the latter so that I can return it to Marc and borrow the second game. Mario is fun as always, and so is Lunar, mainly because my two roommates keep making fun of the voice acting in the game. Hehe, it is actually quite funny.
That's all I got. Peace out.