version 1.5

Ok so school started up this week. Also we never got a new roommate, so there's a big gaping hole in our hearts. My schedule sucks, as it turns out. These are my first impressions:

thermo- McGrath seems cool enough. The fact that the only way he can encourage us to attend class is through the fear of an unannounced quiz (since ALL materials weill be available online) doesn't seem that efficient, though of course that ploy reels me right in.

Linear algebra- I have a grad student teaching it. Siobahn is in my class, so that's cool. It's cool that he's trying to emphasize on the logic of argument, but I'm not sure if giving us a crap definition and then making us figure out where the flaws are is taht useful. It seems to put a little too much reliance on us, like h'es not actually teaching us anything. And also he's going way out of order, apparently. We start with chapter 4. the oher class go in a linear fashion (get it? of course you do.)

Medieval philosophy- cool, but intense. The girl to guy ratio is nice, though. LOTS of reading, lots of writing, lots of talking, none of which I like a whole lot but when you must you must. Had I gone to Rice, I still think I would be getting a minor in medieval studies; that's prolly still my biggest influence.

Engineering Statics- basically an applied physics course. Seems easy enough. the prof is a little anal on neatness and order, but I guess that's necessary for Engineering. Though I do believe that Dr. Budhu is, as far as I can recall, the first African-American teacher I've ever had in all my schoolig years. So that's exciting and fresh.

Diff EQ- I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The main prof seems a little distant. I actualy fell asleep during his calc review. The discussion group TA is nice, but her Greek accent is quite heavy.

Electronic somethings- This is gonna be icky. As the first class where grades are somewhat curved (only half can get an A or B under normal circumstances) and historically an 80% is an A, 70% a B and 55% a C, this is one I'm gonna feel lost in more than once. It's all about circuits and nodes and impedence and other things I can't pronounce. The prof is cool and tries to make jokes, but is rather strict and kinda unaproachable, like you wouldn't want to touch the old person on the other side of the hospital room unapproachable.

So it's a mixed review. Maybe the DVD version will have cool bonus material.

And also playing pool and video games with all the people I've hung out with this week has been awesome!