Winter Quarter: Week 3

Wow, this week has been rough.  It was hectic from the get-go.  The three-day weekend was nice and all for a good break, but that just made getting back on schedule for school that much harder.  Started off with having everything due on the same day because we didn't have school Monday and Tuesday was Obama's inauguration.  Anyhow, I survived this past week, barely.  Hopefully I will be able to recover for this next week.

Because of the hecticness of this past week, I haven't been able to really work on any of the blog entries I had hoped to.  I'm slowly but surely working on them, if any of you are interested.  On a lighter note, I did manage to get an upgrade for my camera.  I am now a proud owner of a Nikon D300.  My old D80 will now be used by my dad.  I got it off of craigslist, so it was at a pretty good price.  It is quite a beastly camera.  Unfortunately, the weather lately has been pretty mundane and hasn't offered any good skies or lighting for shooting outside.  There's also nothing really interesting to shoot indoors in my house either.  Now it's just a waiting game for stuff to pop up.  Then again, I guess this is all about photography--patience.  Waiting for the right moment is always important.  Maybe I'll do a more in-depth write-up about the Nikon D300 and just photography in general.  I find it hard to write about anything photography related because I haven't even taken any formal classes about it, so who am I to say anything about it?

Because it's Chinese New Year weekend, my sisters and I are now down in Vancouver, WA to spend time with my grandma and other relatives.  This may also spell another disasterous week of school as I have not started on homework yet.  However, at least this week the workload is more evenly distributed throughout the week.  Regardless, I should start on  some homework upon finishing this blog entry.

The weather has been very weird this year.  It snowed again while we were here.  It wasn't supposed to stick either, but lo and behold, there is now 2 inches of snow on the ground.  At least the road conditions aren't too bad.  Hopefully it'll melt away so that we can drive back up to Seattle later today.

Happy Chinese New Year.  It's the Year of the Cow!

Winter Quarter: Week 2

Well, week two has come to a close now.  As expected, the inconsistent homework schedule has been tough to keep up with.  However, I am doing a pretty good job at getting everything done so far.  All the teachers also remain the same as their first impressions, so nothing to really talk about there.

The main difference is that this quarter has already quickly drained a lot out of me, which is not a good thing.  I need to find something that would keep me energized throughout the week particularly in the mornings and after classes.  Coffee doesn't work for me--it just makes me more tired.

I know people from previous quarters in my main classes, so that has made it easier to talk to people and study with during breaks and what not.  I find myself hanging out with mainly the international students when I do hang out with people during the day.  They are all really nice people too, so yeah.  I skipped my chemistry lecture on Thursday to help one edit his personal statement for the UW transfer application, that was fun.  I actually learned more stuff about him just by helping him correct his grammar and coming up with a concluding paragraph with him.  I hope he gets in, he's smart and pretty cool--but his grades don't always show it.  It's really interesting observing different kinds of people at community colleges.  It's actually kind of mind-boggling.  I will save this for another blog entry in the near future because I might have quite a lot to say about it--I just need to organize some thoughts about it.

I am really glad that I decided to take this soccer class.  The difference between the first class and the second class was huge in terms of getting my wind back.  First class I was just completely out of it.  Second class I stuck through the whole thing and was a bit fatigued, but not too bad.  This week for the third and fourth classes, I was able to push myself a bit more to the point where I had sore muscles and sweat.  I hope basketball will be able to fit my schedule next quarter though, that would be ideal--though I have enjoyed tennis last quarter and am enjoying soccer this quarter.

I am hoping to finish a couple of blog entries during this long weekend (Martin Luther King Day).  The specific topics of these entries will include:

1. Is Michael Phelps really the greatest Olympian?
2. The dynamic range of the community college student body
3. The flaws of an education system.

Stay tuned.

Winter Quarter: Week 1

So this is the new year.  And I don't feel any different...

Death Cab for Cutie...brings back Shanghai memories.  Anyhow...

I don't think I'm as motivated this quarter as I was last quarter academically.  However, I still want to improve upon my academics so that I will be able to have a better chance at transferring.  Therefore, I think that by doing a weekly analysis of how I am doing will be able to help hold me more accountable for my academics.  Hopefully it will work.  I have also taken other measures to help me academically such as adding a new desk in my room so that I can have space to actually do homework and study.  Last quarter I created an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my grades, and that really helped.  I will continue that this quarter as well.

Since this was only the first week of class, things have been slightly easier.  I am actually a little bit ahead of my school work and am relatively organized with where each class is headed towards.  It definitely feels like I can do really well this quarter, though I know too well how quickly that feeling can disappear.  So for lack of anything substantial to talk about, I will just go straight into a class by class analysis.

ENGR 115 - Engineering Fundamentals and Introduction to Statics

This class is useless.  Absolutely useless.  Everything in this class is just a regurgitation of what is taught in chemistry and physics.  Unfortunately, this is a prereq class for the engineering classes that actually matter such as mechanics, statics, thermodynamics, dynamics, materials etc.  Regardless, this class was made infinitely worse by having a horrible professor.  She should not be teaching anymore.  I'm sure she was a good teacher during the Vietnam War times, but she's got to know when to retire.  There are many things that I don't like about her, but I will not dwell upon them.  This class starts off my morning at 8:30am every day.  It drains the life out of me and makes it so much harder for me to pay attention during my other classes.  Having chemistry at 7:30am last quarter was much better.  Despite having less sleep, I was more awake for the rest of my classes because the chem class professor was just much better.

CHEM 172/182 - Chemistry II/Chemistry II Lab

Following the engineering class, I have an hour break before my chemistry class.  I don't have the same professor as last quarter, but the new one isn't too bad.  This is just a pretty normal class I guess.  Nothing that spectacular about it, but nothing bad about it.  This might be the class I will struggle with the most though because of the weird schedule in which assignments are due.  There's a lot to keep up with--chapter homework assignments, prelabs, lab reports, etc.  Regardless, I've got a decent group of people I can rely on for homework help and just keeping up to date.  If I stay on top of this class, I will be able to do well.  The content isn't even that hard because I've already learned it.

MATH 208 - Linear Algebra
This class isn't too bad either.  It follows right after chemistry.  This professor is known to be hard to get a good grade in as referenced by ratemyprofessors.com.  His scores are close to those of my math professor last quarter--and his class was really hard.  That was my most enjoyable class though, but the grade was hard-earned.  The professor for the linear algebra class though is a bit more upbeat and quirky.  He's pretty cool though, but I have yet to see his exams.  His schedule seems to be easier to handle in terms of due dates and such since he doesn't give quizzes.  However, he does have a 'before' and 'after' section questions due for homework.  I find that system to be quite interesting.  I kind of like it because it makes the students actually read the book ahead of time since they have problems about that chapter due before they even learn about it in the classrooms.  They are very easy problems, but still, it requires some effort outside of the classroom to prestudy for the lecture.  Hopefully I will do well in this class.  I won't really know for sure until I see what his exams are like.

PE 154 - Soccer

And to end my days on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have soccer class.  It's basically just a nice slack off class that I use to keep myself active.  I don't like working out just for the sake of working out.  I like to play a sport because the sport is fun, and in the process it helps keep me relatively fit and in shape.  This class is even easier than the tennis class I took last quarter since there isn't much coaching involved unless you ask for it or are curious about something.  But most of the students already know how to play, it's just one massive scrimmage.  It is soccer played indoors though, but it's still fun.  Definitely an automatic 4.0.

So here's to a new year, a new quarter, and hopefully this quarter will help me lead to a new school.