Shoes and Grades

Well, I'm sitting at home right now in Vacaville, enjoying the "nothingness" in a way. Not having to get up early, not having to do homework, not having to go to work, not having to make dinner/food... it is pretty good, except for the chores here and there and running errands.

Shoes: I've wanted a pair of black DC shoes for a while now, mainly to form an outfit with black shirts, black shorts, jean shorts, and the sorts. Finally found a pair at the mall last night, and I'm sure they'll work perfectly with what I had in mind.

Grades for Fall 2005:

Well they came out, and the course breakdown are as follows:

EE 308: Dr. Corcoran is the shit, he is just straight up an awesome professor. Went into the final with a medium 90% something grade, and that final happened to be the last one we took. 5 pages/problems, and after studying the night before, it went decently I guess. It sucked because he didn't provide us with the node voltages that we're so used to seeing on our special problems and even quizzes... I guess that's fair, I mean it IS the final. Haha, I must remember to mention the fact that I had to ask Corcoran a question during the final, and while I was up there I noticed he was working on the answer key to the final... and my leering eyes was able to confirm/memorize some of the DC values for one of the problems, thus ensuring the correct answers for that section of the test... good ol' Prof Corcoran. Final Grade: A (3 units)

CPE 229: Well, not too much to say except that PicoBlaze sucked and this class was really a deja vu of CPE 219... there was 1 good midterm (in the 90%) and a bad one (in the upper 70%) and 3 perfect/almost-perfect quizzes. Went into the final with about a 86% in the class, so it was a longshot to begin with towards getting an A in the class. So much PicoBlazing on the final, I must've just bull-shitted my way around it. I mean, the stuff I knew how to do, I did real quick and with the help of my notes and even laptop. But come the PicoBlaze design problems, it was all over. Oh well, that's the end of that. Final Grade: B (3 units)

EE 328: Now this class, I guess it was mainly my fault I suppose. Almost perfection on the homework assignments (I mean, I had almost all the answers so there wasn't an excuse on that), but come the tests... holy geezes I couldn't make sense out of the material that I studied my ass off for and thought I knew. I got the second to the lowest score on the first test, and only average on the second exam. I went into the final with I think it was a 71% in the class. That class was fucking huge though... with some smart-ass fucking people in there, which drove the damn curve way up... but that's life (and what happens when a professor with good poly-ratings is teaching the class and he lets everyone add/crash his class). I thought I killed the final, but apparently everyone else did too... I got the average again on the final... 41/48 (which is surprising that the CLASS average was that too, I guess Depiero made it too easy, I mean shit even I did well on it). I ended up with a 79%... NO, it didn't yield a B-.... in Brian's words "the guy has no heart if he doesn't give you a B-" Final Grade: C+ (3 units)

PHIL 320: Oooh, time to go to town on this one. First of all, let me say that this course was a bad omen from day #1. I mean shit, I was debating on whether or not to even take the class due to the large work load and time obligation the other class/labs would require. I should've taken the fact that I SLEPT THROUGH and MISSED my first day of that class as a sign to drop it and not take it. But no, I decided to go ahead and keep the class to work further towards my minor. Dr. Lynch... or Joe as everyone calls him, was an alright lecturer I guess... from what I managed to stay away or pay attention for in that class. Here's the second note on this class... this class was at a VERY bad time. Tuesdays, by the time I get to that class, I'm fucking dead after all my labs. Thursdays, I just don't want to pay attention for 2 hours for my only class. There honestly was no motivation for Joe's class, he had no periodic assignments for us to turn in or ways to make sure we're keeping up with the material in class. All it came down to was whether or not you're able to do well on his multiple choice questions. I did EXACTLY the same on both midterms, 76% on both. I studied for the final pretty hard, but to no avail. Where to place the blame? On myself of course. I didn't do any of the readings out of the books past the 3rd chapter, and just studied solely off of the handouts he gave us (didn't even pay attention and take further notes in class after the first midterm). I guess I got the grade I deserved, and the amount of material that I have already forgotten by now reflects the grade I got. I guess I can't say that I've gotten A's in all my philosophy classes anymore (2 A's for the first 2 classes I took). Final Grade: C+ (4 units)

EE 348 Lab: This one was a no-brainer. Dr. Corcoran was the shit... I mean, Bryan and I went into the final with like a 98% in the class BEFORE the extra credit was added in. Granted that we never got our final circuit (the practical part of the final) to work altogether, we simulated it and went into his office hours to talk to him, and I suppose that was enough to get almost full credit. The final itself, haha... will be a secret between you (whoever you are) and me... by managing to get an early copy of the final, Brian and I (he didn't know I had it, I just said Chase told me what was on it because his section took it before ours) studied like 90% of what was on the final, and I wrote all the answers down on my notes, and the final couldn't have been easier. I love Corcoran, and I will make every effort to be his TA or grader next quarter (or in the future) and any upper division tech electives he might teach. Final Grade: A (1 unit)

CPE 269 Lab: This one was embarassing. 10 labs, and up to the 8th one I was following along with Michael and knew pretty much of what everything was going on. But come the PicoBlaze, I sat back and let the genius do his programming and I did the grunt work (wrote the majority of the lab reports). Michael and I pulled off 199/200 possible points on the 10 lab reports... we were like gods. BUT, come the day of the lab final, of which I studied really hard for and even made my own damn notes! I couldn't do shit.... that final was worth 100 points, and there were 1 word questions on the final that were worth like 5 points! I ended up with a pathetic 56/100 or something rediculous like that on the lab final. God damn, Bryan must've been like "wow... guess we now know who was carrying that lab group". How embarassing, it really wasn't like that at all, I'm really surprised at how shitty I did. Still, I guess he felt sorry for me, because my overall points yielded something like a 87% and Bryan must've given me sympathy (and good effort)... Final Grade: A- (1 unit)

EE 368 Lab: Dr. Nahvi is worthless, he will probably keel over and die soon, and I learned next to nothing from this lab except to make new friends (I made like 2) and work together with them as a collective whole, so that way once one person/group figures out something, everyone else will copy it. This lab was just shitty, and didn't compliment the class at all. Nevertheless, Brian told me what to study for the final, which had absolutely almost nothing (at least not the written part) to do with what we did in lab all quarter. I studied the bode plots, and I guess I did well enough on it and didn't screw up too much on the experimental part. Final Grade: A (1 unit)

Therefore, overall my GPA was to the extent of a 3.07 something. Not bad, and fell right in the middle of my projected range of a high of 3.3 to a low of 2.6. I will continue my ever elusive chase for that Dean's List... I will get you one day... one day....

What's left of this Christmas break:
- Mustafa's get together
- dinner with Jeana
- hang out with Anthony
- Christmas dinner at Tracy's
- Christmas presents!
- lots of video game playing

Enlightenment

... feels so good and rewarding. After spending 22 minutes on the phone with a fellow classmate, all that has to do with a bode plot problem resulting from a feedback system - converting from dB to base 10, reading the gains, the intercepts, solving for the feedback ratio (beta), break frequencies, and the overall closed loop feedback gain - makes complete sense. I WILL ace this part of the problem on the final tomorrow!

1 more left... just one final is all that stands between me and 3 weeks worth of freedom from academic obligations. I can do it... I know I can, because I have WINGS!

Brotha Petray Says:

"Procrastination is a lot like masturbation. Feels good till you realize you're fucking yourself."

Well I'm doing my best right now to avoid studying, mainly because my head hasn't been able to get it straight that I DO in fact have another final tomorrow... it's confusing because originally I didn't have one scheduled for tomorrow, but stupid Prof. Lynch had to change his "unofficial office hours" so that my original plan of taking that philosophy final on Thursday after the 308 one is kinda out of the question. THUS a part of my brain says "you need to study for your final tomorrow NOW so you have time tomorrow to study for the 308 one on Thursday" but another part of the brain is still like "oh what the hell, you have all day tomorrow to study for 308 and the philosophy can come in... somewhere... i don't know where but you can squeeze it in."

The landscaping people came this morning and poured rocks over 99% of the backyard, and layed down like 15 stepping stones to form a path from my door to the back door of Cynthia/Gary's house. Finally, when it rains now it won't be a giant mudhole in the backyard, and Apollo can't run as fast on these rocks so I can catch him when I want to get him into the house and he tries to run away from me, thinking it's a game or something when I have to go to school and he's making me late.... he's sleeping like a baby right now in front of his new favorite piece of furniture in the house: the heat lamp.

2 days and 2 tests left...

4 Days and Counting

Well, I've made it through this quarter thus far, and I have to say that the worst is definetly behind me. All of the "Monday Madness" (4 hours of class, 6 hours of work - 11AM to 11PM on campus), "Torturous Tuesdays" (7 hours of EE lab, 2 hours of philosophy lecture - 8AM to 7 PM on campus), and "Worn-out Wednesdays" (3 hours of EE lab, 4 hours of class - 8AM to 5PM) are all over and I will never again have to put myself through such a demanding schedule again in my life... I've often found myself wanting to collapse after those 3 days, but nevertheless - I've made it through 10 weeks of that hell and this is the final stretch.

Not to mention that I've already managed through 3 out of the 7 finals I have to take... the 3 lab finals were taken during this last week of school - Deadweek. What are left are 4 finals:

CPE 229: Monday 10-1
EE 328: Tuesday 4-7
EE 308: Thursday 10-1
PHIL 320: Thursday 4-6

As I continue to waste time (procrastinating from studying right now), I can only dream of the rest and relaxation that is to come my way in the form of a 3 week break, in which will be filled with good food, chilling with friends (high school AND college buddies), and lots and lots of video/computer game playing.

I've realized that I'm a Facebook Addict... I need to check myself into a clinic or something.