Time

Dang. When was the last time I went a whole month without updating on Blogger? Things have just been so hectic as of late. Plus I was just gone for a few days sans computer at Berkeley. Again.

First, a semester update.

Classes are going sorta alright. It's 15 units of senior level work, so of course its hard. A rundown:

AME 400- Think I'm scraping by with an A in that class. As long as I don't blow the last one, it should stay an A.

AME 412A- I wish I knew how they were going to grade everything at the end. I'm working hard on it, but the group scores tend to drag me down.

AME 413A- I'm almost done with the class. I might be done by Wednesday. That would be cool. I'd have an A in the book already, granted I don't screw up this hammer head.

AME 432- Not been doing too well in quizzes as of late. Maybe a B.

AME 352- If I didn't mess up the last midterm I should be set for an A.

AME 446- same as 352. Plus the homework grade is almost a freebie 30%.

Now, Berkeley redux:

I went to the Berkeley Edge conference. Brent had applied too but never heard back from them. They had a lot of issues. Basically, as I heard it, the person who used to do this quit abruptly and another lady had to quickly take the reins. I met the new lady there, and she is nice, but you could tell the planning had stressed her out. But for those of us that were there, she pulled it out alright.

Basically it was a "Hey, you're in the Sciences, and from an underrepresented minority. This is why you should apply to Berkeley because they outlawed affirmative action in California." So I got to meet some graduate students, talk with a few professors, and get some insight on how to be liked in the application process. Some stuff was basic, get good GRE subject scores, get good course grades, etc. but I didn't realize they put so much emphasis on the essays. So now you know.

I got to talk with people from both the Math and the Stats departments (I was the only person who had indicated an inclination to stats, so they were happy to meet with me). The Math people I was more turned off by. So if I had to choose, I'd apply to Berkeley in stats.

We didn't get to do a whole lot of exploring around on such a short schedule. Our days were packed from 8AM to 9PM, with everything planned out hour by hour. On Saturday night we all got to go to Metro 99, a completely Japanese mall filled with awesome stuff. Then we got bussed to San Francisco and played pool. That was fun, and except for the fact that I didn't have enough money to afford a drink I had a good time.

I got paired up with the best guy. His name is Manuel Segura. He goes to CSU in L.A. and is also a math major, as well as a CS guy. Hmm. Sounds like some people I know. But I think we got along great. We were both the kinda quiet types, and I thinked that fared out well. Some people were a lot rowdier than others, going off to Halloween parties on Friday night and such, but I think it the coordinator lady had good sense to put us together. I hope to keep in touch with him. He told me that he doesn't have MySpace or Facebook, which I can understand, but at least I got his cell.

So now it's back to school for a few more weeks. We're over the hill, but the pictures won't be clear until we near finals. I think I only have 2 finals during actual finals time. One class has a "midterm" on the last day of regular lecture, but we all know. I feel a bit invigorated after my Berkeley retreat, and it feels good. I could tell by last week I was ready to short out.

Back to life.