Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged school
A Long Overdue Update
Jun 14th 2007
I figure I should post some updates on the happenings of this week since I've been fairly quiet recently. I've been sick with a cold, so I haven't had the energy to update things.
There's no updates on what's wrong with my desktop. Things are pretty much as they were when I last reported it. Still dead. I've been trying to clear enough space on my MacBook Pro to install windows XP and City of Heroes so I could at least get my fix in. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to clear enough space due to my music and videos. But more on that later.
Tuesday night, Wassy came over to my place in a continuing series of visits where I corrupt her musical tastes. This time it was Symphony X and some Spock's Beard. She really liked Symphony X. It's kinda too bad they're not going to be playing around here relatively close on their tour since they're pretty good live. But at least they're releasing a new album, next or the week after I believe. I'll have to check.
As she was leaving, we were talking about my computer and the fact that they had an external hard drive they weren't using came up, which is a temporary answer to my prayers here. So I made arrangements to swing by their place the next night after my class to pick it up.
Class was…incredibly boring. We ended up watching half a video of moon stuff and then, for some reason, a documentary on lightning strikes which really doesn't have much of anything to do with the moon, so I'm not sure why she showed it. We did, however, convince her to give us the first (take home) test last night and having it due the week after next still. And since she gave us the test tonight, we no longer even have to show up for class on Monday because all she was going to do was hand out the test. Any time I don't have to rush home from work and run around trying to get to class on time is a plus in my book.
I stopped by my friends place and picked up the drive, went home and got to work. It took a little longer than I was hoping but I now have Windows XP and City of Heroes installed on the MacBook.
Now to get all of my keybinds reconstructed…
An Interesting Class? Impossible!
May 24th 2007
Last night's Astronomy class was actually interesting. Well, half of it was anyway.
The last half of class we went outside as the sun was going down and spent an hour or so sitting on the ground outside of the building and gazing up at the night sky, identifying stars and planets. It started out that the only thing we could really see was the moon, but then we spotted Venus and Saturn, the big dipper, a couple of the stars from the Leo constellation and Gemini I believe. And a lot of airplanes.
Anyway, it was a lot more interesting actually going outside and just looking at the stars to see what was out there than sitting in class and having the professor tell us about them.
The class is pretty small too, which is fun for this sort of thing since it feels like you can kinda have a conversation with everybody while you're out there.
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Astronomy: Night One
May 22nd 2007
Sigh. I went to the bookstore on my lunchbreak yesterday to see about buying the books I need for class. It's something like $92 used (but we'll get back to this in a few minutes) and they didn't have any copies there.
After work I went into class to find out that the book wasn't there because the teacher hadn't ordered it yet. Which means that when they come in they're all going to be new, and therefore the book now costs $128. Oh, and there's a second book with some software attached to it. Argh!
At least the class is interesting so far. The professor is somebody who I've had before, so I knew I'd like her style. She's really into the subject matter and it shows with the amount of effort she put into the class. My only complaint so far was the horrible, horrible videos from the 1980s that she had us watch last night. Mostly boring because they were introductory space stuff which I already knew because of my interest in that kinda thing.
My only complaint is that she's going to keep us there until 9:30 every night because we get to go outside and look at the stars and such. Not a terribly bad thing, exactly. I just prefer to be home a little earlier is all.
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Summer Time…Classes.
May 21st 2007
Sigh. My two week vacation from classes is coming to an end today. The summer semester begins today, so I'm going to be busy again two nights a week (Monday and Wednesday specifically) in my Astronomy class. Sigh.
Today I'm going to swing by the bookstore to see about picking up the required books and such.
Sigh. Am I done yet?
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School Stuff
May 4th 2007
This semester of classes is finally over for me. I had my graphic design final last night and, according to the teacher, I did pretty well on it after he looked it over (after I turned it in of course). Not that I'm entirely surprised considering that it was an open notebook final.
So now I've got a 2 week break in classes until my summer class kicks in on May 21st. I'm taking Astronomy, not because I particularly want to take it, but because I need to take some more random courses in order to graduate. It could be worse though, at least it's something I'm somewhat interested in.
I went to the registrar earlier this week and talked to them about some questions I had. The short version is that instead of being able to graduate in December like I had hoped. I now need to take what amounts to be a couple more courses in order to get the required credits, so I'm pushed back into next year now. I'm getting very, very tired of all this.
An Envelope On The Door
Apr 30th 2007
7 page essay on the foundation of society done! Only took 2,018 words and 3 hours at the library in the afternoon to write. After that I went over to my parents house for a bit and then came home after dinner to an envelope hanging on the outside door to my apartment.
From the car, I saw that it had some writing on it and at first I thought it had said something about "Jesus" since I was a little far away so I couldn't make it out clearly. I figured (as has happened in the past) some group was going door to door dropping off religious literature or something.
As soon as I got out of the car though, I realized that it actually said "Second-Favorite Jason", which is what Wassy has been calling me recently (Her husband, obviously, being the #1 Favorite Jason). I ran into the house to grab some scissors to cut it down (after which realizing there was a quick release string on the knot…but…oh well), then I opened it up….
Wheeee! New artwork! If you're wondering that's one of the characters (Probably my favorite one) that I played in City of Heroes (when I have enough time to play these days anyway).
I think this is probably the best piece of work that I've seen her do so far. I love the comic-booky with a hint of anime style. And the face. Oh, and the hair…and…uh…everything else. My gushing abilities are a bit sore from my reaction yesterday, but it boils down to: I love it.
And it was a complete and total surprise too. It seems her secret keeping skills are improving right along with her artwork. There were only a couple minor hints to this one, unlike the last one, and those needed to be pointed out after the fact. I should have picked up on something when she asked how long I had planned to be out doing my laundry this morning…
I need to go buy a frame now. Good thing I only have to go to class tonight to hand in my paper. I can swing by the store and grab something.
Rough Drafts Are For Wimps
Apr 26th 2007
Just a quick update since I haven't really had much time to post anything recently due to schoolwork. I've been working on a lot of my Graphic Design homework this week. I need to make a process notebook, which is basically a binder containing everything I ever produced for the class. The teacher wants to see different options and versions of stuff which I don't have…I'm not a big rough draft guy. So I have to come up with all the drafts after doing the final version.
Rough drafts are for wimps anyway.
QotD: A Dream Come True
Apr 23rd 2007
I have lots of wierd dreams that thankfully have not come true. For example, I dreamed that I was in a motorcycle race however my bike wouldn't pass inspection due to the fact that I couldn't produce a valid license key for my bikes copy of windows xp.
Yeah…I know…
I honestly can't think of an actual dream that I've had that came true. Now if we're talking about dreams as far as the concept of desires goes…then of course. My dreams tend to be smaller and short term though. No big "i wanna be an astronaut!" (apologizing for my bad spelling here…typing this on my treo) although…I did want to go into space for a while until I learned about the whole concept of g-forces…but that's another story.
Usually, my dreams are small scale. Fish ownership, finding a job that's decent, getting out of college alive…
Those last two are, I admit, large goals for some…but they're both fairly immediate and small as far as effort on my part at this point in time.
Frustration Venting Time
Apr 17th 2007
Whoops. I was supposed to run up to school today to work on my scheduling problems, but I completely forgot about it, so I'm going to have to do it tomorrow. Won't forget this time, although who knows how much I'll actually get accomplished.
That's the thing that really annoys me about the whole college thing. It's not so much the crappy required courses, or the horrible teachers although those things aren't fun either. It's the fact that they make you jump through all sorts of hoops and never tell you exactly what hoop to jump through, or even that there's going to be hoops along the way.
It's all so frustrating, and makes me feel "stuck" because I don't really like where I am at the moment, but I can't really change much of anything until I get finished with this whole school thing, and I can't finish that until I finish jumping through imaginary hoops.
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But…But…It's APRIL!
Apr 16th 2007
I woke up this fine morning to the sound of howling wind. Then I looked out my front window:
It's April 16th! Snow should have stopped in March! April showers bring May flowers, not snowstorms! Sigh.
Anyway…spent the weekend doing fun and relaxing things. Went over to a friends place on saturday to watch The Prestige which I had rented through netflix. It's a very good, and very confusing movie. Just when you think you've got it figured out, they throw something else at you which changes things completely. Highly recommended. Although I didn't even realize Hugh Jackman or David Bowie were in it until it was pointed out to me.
After that, more anime, a stop at IHOP for dinner and then…more anime. Chobits is turning out to be very interesting. Awesome art and a fairly thought provoking story
Sunday was more relaxation. I started the process of cycling my aquarium in preparation for sticking some fish in there. I then played Final Fantasy 7 almost all day, finishing Disc 1 before calling it a night. It's a really good game so far.
My only complaint is that it leaves you hanging an awful lot as far as giving you some direction as to where you're supposed to go next. At this one point, for example, your party is all bent on rescuing this certain other member of the party that's gone missing.
"Let's go find her!" They say. And then it drops you out to the world map with no idea where to start looking. I had to look at a walkthrough in order to figure out that I had to go to the far northern continent, practically halfway around the world from where I was when they decided to look for her. A little direction would have been nice. Heck, I would have settled for "we should start looking north." They didn't even need to mention it was on a different continent.
I was going to run up to school today during my lunch break to try and work out some of my scheduling problems, but I think I'll have to put that off until tomorrow due to the weather conditions right now. Sigh.
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