R&R railroad

These two weeks off from school have been so awesome. I'm very relaxed. And it feels good. I've been playing Wii, Guitar Hero, and especially my old GameCube stuff. I pulled out Paper Mario: TYD and have been working extensively on that. I stopped playing it mostly cause of ridicule from my roommates. Whatever. I'm out of here in 2 weeks, so they can do/think/say whatever they want. I can't wait for Berkeley. This is gonna be so awesome. I'm going up with my mom cause she wants to see San Fran, and frankly this is the best excuse she could possibly think of for a reason to go. Then I'll be at Berkeley doing Math research and mooching for food. Maybe I can work on the Supernova behavior group, though as an engineer the materials science processes with eigenvalues might be more appropriate. I wish I knew who the other people were. At least my roommate there or something. After all, there'll be 6 weeks of smelly socks and derivatives on the floor. I can't say how lucky I got freshman year to get Dan as my random roommate. He's so awesome. I wished he could come down to Tucson sometime before I left, but he'll be in San Fran doing his film workshop the same time I'll be over there, so that'll be cool. I gotta remember to take a flash drive with my music on it since I don't have an MP3 player. And headphones.

But yesterday's barbecue was soooooo good. Burgers, hot dogs, and a not so tender steak. yummy. I hate when my folks just talk about work and politics and how fucked up the world is. They try and ask me on my opinion, but I usually have very little to say.

The only thing that makes me sad about leaving for Berk is I'm gonna miss my cousin's graduation from ITT. Since I missed his high school graduation and he made it to mine, I just always wanted to make it to his graduation from ITT. But, sigh, stuff happens. Tony is my brother for all practical purposes. We've only grown up together. My mom likes to remind us of Tony's inquiries when I was little. "When's he gonna start talking?" And then after I learned words and such, "When's he gonna stop talking?" But I've always looked up to him, not cause he's always been 2 inches taller than me, but he always seems to know what he wants and what he's doing. Me, I'm just the clumpball of chaos standing next to him. He's always been there for me, and it feels like I'm never there for him. But enough moping. Listening to Linkin Park tends to make you do that. BUT THE NEW ALBUM IS SO FRICKIN AWESOME! Get it. Got it? Good.

And I got my old calculator back. Yay! That thing helped get me to D.C. back in 8th grade. I owe Sparky big time.

the rundown

ABE 320- I got a 56% on the final, but Erika was benevolent. Plus I got 100% on the homework and the individual project, so that kept me in good light. I scraped by with a 79% B.

AME 302- I got an A in there. No major surprise. Wish I knew how we did on the last MATLAB assignment.

MATH 323- Fred told me I had an A in there. Then I shook his hand. He wrote me a letter for a scholarship, whose amount is still unannounced. So I didn't need to take the final.

MATH 446- B in number theory. Considering how much I hated that class and how much of a disappointment it was to me, I'm OK with it.

MSE 331 lecture- I got a below average 77% on the final, which really scared me in terms of grade. But my 91.7% midterm average helped me enough, I guess, to keep an A in there.

MSE 331 lab- Halfway through the semester, upon discovering that this lab was to be discontinued and thus no longer needed for graduation, I found it very hard to stay focused. Fortunately, the last 2 assignments were group projects, and we kicked ass on one of them 257/260. So in the end I wound up smack in B territory with like an 84%. 80 was the B cutoff and 88 the A cutoff. So I'm not too upset. Plus it's only a 1-unit class.

SIE 305- Got an A obviously as it was stats. However, I lost my TI-83 to some guy. Granted, it was on its last limbs, but to abandon it like I did is despicable. Poor Sparky. I'm sorry.

Total- 20 units. GPA Average- 3.65. College average- 3.86. Not shabby.

finals countdown

I didn't have a final for my math proofs class, which I might've probably gotten an A on, but I'm in the middle of a 2-final day and find it really hard to care.

Rundown on grades:

Number Theory- I guess if I could pull off an awesome on the final then I might squeak by with an A, but a B seems more definite.

Stats- an A for sure. I just need to go and take the final and get like 50% on it, which shouldn't be too hard.

Numerical Analysis- The final seemed almost too easy. I hopefully got an A in there.

Material Science 331R- As long as I don't bomb the final I should get an A, as well.

MSE 331 Lab- A is almost certainly out of the question. B would be nice. Expecting a C, but it's a one-unit lab so it doesn't hurt all that much.

Math Proofs- Guaranteed A. Don't need to even take the final.

Computer Aided Design- I've just found myself so pressed for time when it comes to this class that I'd be happy with a C. An A seems out of the question as I got a below average 74% on both midterms, and the final is bound to be similar. If you ' d like, you can see what all the other students did for their solo/team projects here. Mine's at the bottom. It's best to view it with IE and as far as I know the required download is safe. Of course, I'm not compy savvy.

Hopefully I can make Dean's List. I'm expecting a 3.45-ish, just shy, but I think that's pretty respectable for a 20-unit semester. Optimally I could pinch out a 3.8. We'll just have to wait and see.