my parents have been planning this road trip to various national parks in the southwestern us for about a month now. the same time, my sister and i haven't been all to enthusiastic about going. apparently, this trip is their method of getting us 'out of the house' so we get to spend a week away from home. thankfully, hotels provide internet access, so i guess i wont be totally cut off from the rest of the world.
today was quite a boring day. after loading up the car around 9 in the morning, we left around 10. after that, it was 10 hours of traveling on the road with breaks only for meals and to go to the bathroom. the most interesting part of the traveling was the fact that my dad made me drive for like two hours of it, so at least i had something to do aside from stare at the rural scenery with plenty of farms that are dead in the winter. driving around las vegas was somewhat interesting. the last time my family visited had been several years back, and my parents were amazed at the number of new hotels/casinos that have popped up since then.
what amuses me is the fact that my mom has commented on my relatively light clothing the entire day. even after repeatedly telling her that i'm already accustomed to cold weather (and seriously, its like 10 degrees colder at school) she still insists that i should put on more than a light jacket.
perhaps tomorrow will be a bit more interesting, though i have no idea what to expect from a visit to death valley.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Home
back when i was at school, i was somewhat wondering what i would do once i got home. now that i am at home, it seems like i wont be doing very much. my family has been planning vacation to death valley in southern california along with some other places, but aside from that, i'm left with nothing to do.
since my sister is still in school til friday, i get to do the usual 'drive your sister to school and pick her up' thing even though she already is able to drive herself. that aside, home has been surprisingly peaceful. all i really have to do is help out a bit around the house, which really isn't too bad compared to the stressful lifestlyle of a cmu student. yesterday, the only thing i really did beyond hosuework was arrange my travel plans for when i go back to school for spring semester. since a lot of my friends are planning a trip to new york, i decided that i would take the chance to join them there for a few days as i haven't ever actually been there before. i also ended up calling one of my high school friends which i haven't spoken to for about a year. we arranged to get together tomorrow, but now i'm wondering what we're gonna be doing since its been so long.
for a while now, my dad has been discussing my plans for the future with me. while its nice being able to discuss the options i have, i am often left with the feeling that i am not really ready to move onwards and that i am not going to be able to do those things. the only thing i really can do is go to grad school given the field i have chosen. with that, the only choice i have is to either go to grad school right after graduating, or to go to grad school after working a little for some income or whatever. at the moment, i find myself leaning towards the latter, but i still feel somewhat disoriented over the dwindling time i have before entering the so called real world.
i know i should probably do something, but i'm still left not knowing what i should do. maybe someday i'll figure out what it is that i really want for myself. so for now, with the unknown grades of the just completed semester hovering in the back of my mind, i'm going to sit around and see what happens.
since my sister is still in school til friday, i get to do the usual 'drive your sister to school and pick her up' thing even though she already is able to drive herself. that aside, home has been surprisingly peaceful. all i really have to do is help out a bit around the house, which really isn't too bad compared to the stressful lifestlyle of a cmu student. yesterday, the only thing i really did beyond hosuework was arrange my travel plans for when i go back to school for spring semester. since a lot of my friends are planning a trip to new york, i decided that i would take the chance to join them there for a few days as i haven't ever actually been there before. i also ended up calling one of my high school friends which i haven't spoken to for about a year. we arranged to get together tomorrow, but now i'm wondering what we're gonna be doing since its been so long.
for a while now, my dad has been discussing my plans for the future with me. while its nice being able to discuss the options i have, i am often left with the feeling that i am not really ready to move onwards and that i am not going to be able to do those things. the only thing i really can do is go to grad school given the field i have chosen. with that, the only choice i have is to either go to grad school right after graduating, or to go to grad school after working a little for some income or whatever. at the moment, i find myself leaning towards the latter, but i still feel somewhat disoriented over the dwindling time i have before entering the so called real world.
i know i should probably do something, but i'm still left not knowing what i should do. maybe someday i'll figure out what it is that i really want for myself. so for now, with the unknown grades of the just completed semester hovering in the back of my mind, i'm going to sit around and see what happens.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Done in a Way
after two days of light studying, totalling like 8 hours, and another 90 minutes of exam, i'm finally done with physical chemistry >.>
at this point, i'm not quite sure what to think. looking back on the semester, i might have done a bit better had i attended the recitation section. in the beginning of the semester, i attended the first few weeks of class, but my overall impression was that its usefulness was so little that i'd be better off simply reviewing the material on my own. a bit over a week ago, i attended the last section to find that only 5 other people showed up for the class which had over 60 students enrolled. had i gone consistently over the semester, i might have done slightly better on the class as a whole. however, i still feel that unless i had drastically changed my study habits, my grade in this class wouldn't have changed much.
in about an hour, my friends and i are going to go bowling. it probably will be the last thing we do together before we all go home over the holidays. currently, i'm in the process of planning a visit to new york to see a few of them before school starts in the spring. having never been farther east than my school, it will be an interesting experience to say the least. at the moment, i'm not too sure what i'm gonna be doing at home. hopefully, i'll be able to meet up with a few of my high school friends. if anything, i'll probably call a few of them and drag them home or something xD.
the only thing really left for me to do at school now is the optional final and packing to go home. as of now, my grade in my instrumentation class is a B. since the final is optional, that means i wont lose anything by not taking it or failing it. after a bit of calculations, it looks like i need a 103% on the thing to get the 90% for an A. at this point, it doesn't seem like i should even take the thing. however, there is a chance that my teacher would put some extra credit problem on the exam which would in fact give me a chance at the A. but as with all tests, there is a higher chance that i simply make stupid mistakes and miss a few points, leaving me with a score that's less than what i need. i'm probably going to take the exam just to see if there is even a chance of my getting the score i need.
since my brain is dead now, i'm gonna do some mindless grinding now while i wait for the meeting time to come.
at this point, i'm not quite sure what to think. looking back on the semester, i might have done a bit better had i attended the recitation section. in the beginning of the semester, i attended the first few weeks of class, but my overall impression was that its usefulness was so little that i'd be better off simply reviewing the material on my own. a bit over a week ago, i attended the last section to find that only 5 other people showed up for the class which had over 60 students enrolled. had i gone consistently over the semester, i might have done slightly better on the class as a whole. however, i still feel that unless i had drastically changed my study habits, my grade in this class wouldn't have changed much.
in about an hour, my friends and i are going to go bowling. it probably will be the last thing we do together before we all go home over the holidays. currently, i'm in the process of planning a visit to new york to see a few of them before school starts in the spring. having never been farther east than my school, it will be an interesting experience to say the least. at the moment, i'm not too sure what i'm gonna be doing at home. hopefully, i'll be able to meet up with a few of my high school friends. if anything, i'll probably call a few of them and drag them home or something xD.
the only thing really left for me to do at school now is the optional final and packing to go home. as of now, my grade in my instrumentation class is a B. since the final is optional, that means i wont lose anything by not taking it or failing it. after a bit of calculations, it looks like i need a 103% on the thing to get the 90% for an A. at this point, it doesn't seem like i should even take the thing. however, there is a chance that my teacher would put some extra credit problem on the exam which would in fact give me a chance at the A. but as with all tests, there is a higher chance that i simply make stupid mistakes and miss a few points, leaving me with a score that's less than what i need. i'm probably going to take the exam just to see if there is even a chance of my getting the score i need.
since my brain is dead now, i'm gonna do some mindless grinding now while i wait for the meeting time to come.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Finals...
at the moment, i'm done with one of the two finals that i need to take. the next final i have is on friday, and the optional one that i have is on monday. i'm not sure what to think of the first one i took today, which was genetics. as far as completion goes, i only missed like 10 points of the 200 possible points, but part of me feels like the answers i came up with were just too simple considering the difficulty of the class. sure, the simplest answer is generally the right one, but professors have a nice tendency to say your answers are not detailed enough or something...
thankfully, my grade is about average in the class, so more than likely i'll get a passing grade in the class. now i just have to forget about this first test and focus on this next exam i have to take.
apparently, the professor for my p-chem class likes to reuse questions to the point where he simply takes questions from the previous tests and places them, word for word, on the final exam. generally, the exams turn out better in the final than during the semester, but the problem for me is that i still have no clue how to solve some of the questions i missed... i guess i have 3 days to teach myself all of that assuming i can find the one that i misplaced >.>
thankfully, my grade is about average in the class, so more than likely i'll get a passing grade in the class. now i just have to forget about this first test and focus on this next exam i have to take.
apparently, the professor for my p-chem class likes to reuse questions to the point where he simply takes questions from the previous tests and places them, word for word, on the final exam. generally, the exams turn out better in the final than during the semester, but the problem for me is that i still have no clue how to solve some of the questions i missed... i guess i have 3 days to teach myself all of that assuming i can find the one that i misplaced >.>
Monday, December 8, 2008
Oooh...shiny....
i created this account thinking i'd make comments on other ppl's stuff, but i might as well post something here... so hi =P
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