Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know that there is (at the time of this writing) only 15 minutes left of Christmas, but that is exactly why I am just barely getting around to making this post. Vacation has been going awesome so far. I am really enjoying my (well needed) time off. I know that when my Spring semester courses start on January 11th that I am going to have a larger work load ahead of me than I did last semester. The courses are going to be more challenging, and Freshmen Orientation has taken a hike only to be replaced by "C" Programming. I am sure that as challenging as my new courses will be, they will still be fun.

I don't plan on talking about what I got for Christmas because I am taking those who are less fortunate than me into consideration. I do however, have to make this post soon before it is too late... (only a few minutes left of Christmas...)

I will try to post a couple more times during my vacation... :-)

I Passed All of My Courses!

The picture above is of a tree that has been 'crystallized' with ice. At the time the picture was taken literally every tree had this crystal effect. All the trees looked like something straight out of a Christmas shop. I have lived in Vermont my whole life, but I have never seen this effect to this level. It is too bad that the trees don't have this crystal effect anymore. It was really cool because the trees would reflect the sunlight with rainbow-like colors making it look as though every tree had Christmas lights. :-)

Anyway, I found out today that I actually managed to pass my math course. I won't post my final grade because it is borderline, and I mean borderline. I am now only waiting for my final grade in my Digital Circuits class. I received an A- for a final grade in Circuits, an A+ in Expository Writing, and I passed math...

If I had failed my math course it would have completely screwed up my schedule for next semester. I would not have been able to move onto my next Fundamentals of Circuits course, Digital Circuits course, or obviously my next math course. It is my understanding that Fundamentals of Circuits II requires that (at least) the Tech. Math course already be completed, and it also requires Tech. Math II be taken during the same semester. With that said, I wouldn't be able to move onto my new courses. I would only be taking Research Writing, Fund. Programming in C, and Intro. to Technical Math.

My math course was the only one that I was worried about, so I am relieved that I passed the course. The grade I received will (likely) alter my GPA due to the fact that it is a 5 credit course, but my grades in all of my other classes are awesome, so I should still get by with a fairly decent GPA for my first semester.

I am going to try and keep the blog updated even though I am on a 3 week Christmas vacation. I am planning on posting a picture of our Christmas tree at some point this week...

Camera Batteries Are Dead...

As the title for this post suggests, the batteries in my camera are dead. I have tried several different batteries that I have around my dorm room, but none of them seem to keep the camera on long enough for a picture. I meant to post yesterday because I already knew what I was going to post about, but I didn't want to post without having a picture. I decided that I would just use an older photo that I took back in October. This picture is of my Nephew (who is now 9 months old) painting a pumpkin. You can see from the photo that he is a very clean, organized, and sophisticated painter. He never makes a mess, and he would never paint his high chair...

Oh... crap.

Anyway, I have 4 of my 5 classes out of the way as far as exams go. I am officially done with Expository Writing, Fundamentals of Digital Circuits I, Fundamentals of Circuits I, and Freshmen Orientation. It is not surprising that the Freshmen Orientation 'exam' involved no work whatsoever. I didn't mind going to it because I had nothing better to do, and it was less than 2 hours long. I also liked how it was at 8am because I am now officially done for the day.

The last final exam that I have is tomorrow from 10am to 12pm. This is exam will be my toughest exam because it is for Intro. to Technical Math. If I did my math correctly (ironic?) I need to get at least a 56 in order to pass the course. The final exam counts as 25% of the final grade in the class. I am confident that I will do better than a 56 on the exam, but I am not going to let my guard down. I plan on revisiting all of the sections that we have completed in the book for this course. I am happy that my math exam starts at 10am instead of 8am. I wouldn't want to have to take math final at 8 o'clock in the morning. I hope that I do a great job, but I won't know the grades for any of my exams until I get back to the college in January.

Just in case I don't find the time to post from here until Christmas, I will try to post, be sure to have a great Christmas and a great holiday break! :-)

End of the Semester - My New Schedule

I am officially finished with my first semester's courses. I have posted a picture of my schedule which shows the classes that I will have for the Spring semester (til the end of the year). You should be able to see that the only new classes I have are Research Writing, and Fundamentals of Programming in "C". For those of you who don't know, "C" is a computer programming language. It is one of the many computer languages used to develop computer programs and is one of the most widely used. This "C" programming course sounds like it is going to be extremely easy. I already have prior programming experience with other languages, and I am sure that it will help me out in this class. These new classes don't start until January 12th (after vacation), but the first step is getting through the final exams that I have this week. Also, I have my new schedule posted where the old one used to be, on the right side of the blog.

I have both of my circuits exams tomorrow. I have the Digital Circuits exam @ 8am, and my Fundamentals of Circuits exam @ 3pm. I will be sure to post my thoughts on each exam after I have taken both of them. I will post how I feel that I did on each exam. I will do this for each exam except for math, or I will only post about my math exam if I feel that I did a great job on it...

I found out today that my final grade for Expository Writing is a 97. I am proud of myself for doing so well in 3 out of my 4 college courses. I have enjoyed the class quite a bit and I will probably be missing it soon enough. Well, I gotta get back to studying circuits...

Week 15 - Last Day of Classes Tomorrow

UPDATE:

I forgot to mention that my roommate has moved out of this room which means that I now have the room to myself. This could change after Christmas break, when the spring semester starts, if there are a lot more students coming in or if someone wants a room reassignment. I am hoping that I keep the room to myself for the remainder of the year because it will allow me to have twice as much space, and it will make it much easier to study, and do work... I decided to post a picture of my dorm room, so people could see it. :-)

ORIGINAL POST:

It is hard to believe, but it is finally the end of the semester at Vermont Tech. It is amazing how quickly time can fly by when you are kept busy. With this week being the final week of the semester it is also the week of final exams. My schedule this week looks like this:

Monday: Last day of classes (normal Monday schedule)

Tuesday: Fund of Digital Circuits exam @ 8am, Fund. of Circuits Exam @ 3pm

Wednesday: Freshmen Orientation exam @ 8am (every course required to have final exam)

Thursday: Intro. to Technical Math exam @ 10am, 3 week Christmas break starts!

Friday: VACATION! :-)

My vacation starts after my Intro. to Technical Math exam on Thursday, and I will be coming back to the college on January 11th. If you are wondering why an exam is not listed for Expository Writing it is because the exam is just a quick talk with my professor. Each final exam is 2 hours long. You may remember that I already had a 2 hour Expository Writing exam earlier in the year. This makes life a lot easier because it is one less exam that I have to study for this week. The only exam that I am worried about (and so it will receive the most attention) is my Intro. to Technical Math exam. If i fail my math exam then I fail the course, but if I pass the exam then I will pass the course. I may or may not update my blog over Christmas break. The only thing that holds me back is the purpose of this blog. I have created this blog based around college, so anything that is not based on college would be considered off topic...

Just in case I am too busy later in the week to post again due to exams, be sure to have a great holiday vacation. I am wondering how quickly I can get the counter on my blog to rise, so feel free to tell anyone you know about my blog! :-)

TekBots Obstacle Course

I originally meant to post this yesterday, but I was too busy. Anyway, In my Fundamentals of Circuits lab we had a few different challenges set up for our robot cars. The challenges included an obstacle course, a race, a TekBots quiz, judging for 'style points' and judging for workmanship (quality of completed work). The prizes for each of these challenges were pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I conveniently forgot to plug my robot car in the night before (I had every intention to do so... funny how that works), but I also managed to optimize the tuning on my robot car for obstacle courses and races.

I ended up winning two of the challenges. With the obstacle course, each person had to get there robot car from the starting point to the finish line (the invisible line that travels through the trash can and the cardboard box...). I had my car tuned so that if it hit the left sensor it would make a quick (and i mean quick) right turn before taking off again. This worked out great because my car was setup so that it could easily go around obstacles. I ended up winning the obstacle course even though my car was the slowest, simply for its fine tuning.

Even with how slow my car was traveling I almost won the race. We had it setup as a straight track with all the boards and boxes from the obstacle course. There were four robot cars total, and mine was, by far, the slowest. When the race started the car on the far left (I was on the far right) hit one of longer boards on the side of the course. This board then spun backwards and hit the other two cars. I found this to be rather funny considering the fact the my car was the slowest, but it was also the only one that wasn't affected by this 'course malfunction.' My car kept on going straight, but then the other three cars got themselves out of the messy situation that they were in, and a car finally crossed the finish line. My car almost made it, but someone had road rage and slammed into one of my wheels. This turned my car around so that it was facing some boards in the direction of the starting line, and sure enough my robot car starting working its way around the boards. Needless to say that I didn't win this event, but it was still a lot of fun.

The second event that I won was the TekBots quiz. There was a single problem on the quiz, and the first person to answer the problem won the challenge. This quiz wasn't graded, but it did mean that the winner got a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I don't know how close the other students were to finding the answer to the question, but I know that I answered it very quickly. I would explain what the question was about if explaining it would result in this post being 4 pages long.

I ended up winning two events. This meant that I got two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It was definitely a good idea to fine tune my robot car the night before. I don't know why I didn't manage to plug my robot car in for the night after I finished fine tuning it. In the race I came really close to the finish line before my wheel got hit. I am confident that I would have won the race if I would have remembered to plug in my robot car. I am definitely not at any loss though. The challenges were a lot of fun, building the bot was a lot of fun, and winning two events was a lot of fun. Now I can get fat off of two pints of ice cream... :-)

Fiber Optic Voice Link

It is now Week 14. Over the weekend I worked on a new project that my circuits professor gave to me. It is called a 'fiber optic voice link' because it takes the input from a microphone on one chip, converts it to light, sends it through the fiber optic cable, and then the other chip converts it back and amplifies it through the speaker. It was fun putting it together. I have been troubleshooting it to find out why it is making a loud screeching noise and a loud buzzing noise. I believe that the speaker is blown, but It could be just about anything in the circuit. I am hoping to further diagnose the chips during this week's lab. This is actually the last week of classes. I have classes on Monday of next week, but after that it is nothing but final exams. I have two of my 3 exams on Tuesday.

I believe my math professor said that my Technical Math exam is next Thursday. I am hoping that this is true because it would mean that my vacation starts a day earlier. My high school advisor invited me back to my high school for next Friday to see the school's staff band play. Yup. The band is nothing but teachers and faculty. More than half the teachers in my high school were dedicated musicians. My librarian/advisor was also one of the best lead guitarists that I have ever seen. There are so many musical teachers at my old high school that they decided to start a band. The band is cleverly called "Staff Infection." They only perform once a year, before Christmas break, but they always do an awesome job.

Anyway, I have a really easy night tonight. I am going to get back to taking advantage of it... :-)

UPDATE: I have added a viewer counter to the right hand side of my blog. It will count the number of times that people go to my blog. It is inaccurate though because it wasn't around for the past couple of months. It will count people from here on out, but it does not count the number of times people have visited the blog before the counter was added.

Last Essay Grade is Also Awesome

I had my Expository Writing class this morning. I got my Example Essay back, and it is my 3rd 98 in the class! My essay was about the consequences of skipping class and how it can turn into a dangerous trend. I decided that this would be a good topic because I know several people who skip their classes all the time. These students are then surprised when they find that they are failing a course, and this confuses the hell out of me. The way I am starting to look at it is, if you are someone who is surprised by everything you are probably an idiot. :-)

Nobody should be surprised to find that they are failing a course after missing a whole crap-load of classes. Common sense says that if you don't show up for work, you don't get paid. In college, the professor still gets paid if you don't show up. The only one at loss is yourself. Why the hell would anyone willingly put themselves in this situation?

Anyway, I decided to take a picture of my "Awesome Dorm Room View" with a different angle, and a bunch of snow. It is only the beginning of December, so there is a hell of a lot more snow on the way. In other news, I have my 4th Technical Math exam today. I hope that I do well on it. With that said, I am worried that there is going to be a bunch of BS on it like usual...

I just need to get through this and then I am home for the weekend...

Famous Comedian - Lowell Sanders

I just got back from watching Lowell Sanders stand-up comedy and it was easily one of the funniest acts I have ever seen! I laughed very hard at each of the jokes he made because they were very original. Lowell Sanders has been on Comedy Central, he has toured with George Lopez, and he has even been in a few movies, like Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen. I am definitely going to spend a great deal of time trying to remember his jokes. I laughed so hard that I didn't get a chance to store them in a good part of my brain...

This guy is a really cool guy. I talked to him after his show and he gave the president of the college and two staff members a free cd for setting up the show. A couple of other students and I told him jokes of our own. I shook his hand a couple of times before I started to head out, but then I saw that one of the other students was getting a cd from him. I didn't know if he was giving them away or if the student was buying it. I walked back and asked him if he was selling them, and he said "Oh.. this is the last one that I have, but write your name and address down and I will send one to ya!" He was signing each copy that he handed out, so I am hoping that I get a signed cd in the mail. Getting a cd is perfect because I won't have to spend so much time memorizing his jokes.

He is an awesome performer, and I really like how great Vermont Tech is with choosing quality entertainment. The school knows that there is not a lot to do in Randolph, VT, so they make up for it by bringing all the entertainment right to the college! In case you haven't noticed from reading this blog I really enjoy being here... :-)

To check out Lowell Sanders website, go to: www.lowellsanders.com

Awesome Exam Grades

"One of My Strats"
-----------------------------------

I had an exam in both of my circuits classes before Thanksgiving break. I found out today what my grades were for both of the exams. I am happy with both of my grades.

On my Digital Circuits exam I received a 79 because I made a couple of mistakes. I was expecting a higher grade on my exam, but I am still happy with the grade I got. A 79 is still a pretty decent grade. This was my second exam in Digital Circuits. The only exam I have left is the final exam which takes place in a couple of weeks.

I did an awesome job on my Fundamentals of Circuits exam. This exam was the second one that was graded for this class. The first exam, which I took earlier in the year, I received a 96 for a grade. This second exam I didn't do as well as my first, but a 93 is still pretty damn awesome. This 93 means that I only made a few minor mistakes in my work. One mistake occurred because I was "on a roll" while I was taking the test. I was rolling out answers left and right, and I was so confident towards the end of the test that I added 20 + 20 to equal 4. I looked at the problem, pulled (most of) the information out, and then I accidentally misread the 20's as 2's. I had the sum of the capacitors at 4 Farads when it was supposed to be at 40 Farads. I didn't get too many points docked for this mistake because I would I have gotten the correct number if I would have taken a second look at the information that was given to me. I had my formulas right, but I obviously needed the right numbers to get the right answer.

I have final exams for 3 out of my 4 classes. The only final i am worried about is for my Technical Math class. The final exam will determine whether or not I pass the class since my grades are nowhere near as good as they are in my other 3 classes. I don't necessarily agree with the whole idea of having an exam this Friday and then having the final in two weeks.

My main goal for this semester is to pass my tech math class. I am going to put forth my best effort for this week's exam and the final that follows a couple weeks after. I am not someone who complains, but my math class is much harder than it needs to be. The problem lies in how many different majors get mashed together to form the class. The class lacks focus because everyone does things differently. You have Computer Tech. students mixed with architects and etc... It is easy for students to give up in the class because the work is challenging. My other classes do an exceptional job of teaching me new material. There hasn't been a single day where I haven't been interested in my other 3 classes. I am willing to accept failure, but only when it backfires and teaches me the right way to do things. I don't see myself failing the class, but where I have failed has only helped me learn more.

Got carried away...

Anyway, there is a famous comedian named Lowell Sanders that will be at the college tomorrow. He is a "Def Comedy Jam" performer and he has been on Comedy Central. I am going to make sure that I make it down to his show, and I will make sure that I post about it on the blog...

Thanksgiving Break is Over...

Tomorrow will be the start of my 13th class week. I am surprised that it is already approaching the end of my first semester in college. I am looking forward to next semester, and I hope that it goes as well as my first.

My vacation was nice. It is always nice to have a vacation, but the problem lies in how easy it is to forget stuff over the break and having to 'remind' yourself when you get back. I ordered a soldering iron the Thursday before break. It is the same exact kind of soldering iron as what is used at Vermont Tech. I am used to using this soldering iron and I really like it, so I decided I would buy the same thing.

I will post the grades from my exams when I get them back tomorrow...

Robot Car 100% Complete!!!

This is the first video that I have posted on my blog. I recorded this using my PlayStation Eye camera. The camera has awesome quality, and hopefully the quality isn't reduced too bad when it is uploaded. I do a 360 degree view twice and then I show you the very first test run! This video was made before I finished two sets of wires, but I still managed to make it work since the copper wires fit into their spots without having to be soldered to their pins.

I hope you like this video. I have two dials (known as potentiometers) that control each wheel and how long they will back up for each sensor that detects a collision. I need to fine tune the settings so that the car won't do what is almost a complete turn-around. I want it to be angled after it turns around so it won't ever go back and forth between two objects (like two walls in a hallway).

I have this blog open for comments also, so if you want to comment on any post on the blog then feel free to do so. I only ask that there are no negative/offensive comments left on the blog.

Well, Thanksgiving Break officially starts today. I think that I am going to start getting my stuff together to go home. I can't say whether or not I will post over break. If I find something to post about then I will do so...

Robot Car 99% Complete!

I confirmed with my professor yesterday that the electronics labs are open to people just coming in and coming out anytime they want. This was great news because now I know that I can have an electronics lab whenever time allows. I decided to take advantage of this new found knowledge and I spent about 3 hours in one of the lab rooms working on my robot car. The time flew right by because I enjoy working on it. I would have stayed to finish the car, but I had to head off to the dining hall before it closed for the night.

Anyway, I only have 2 more sets of wires to complete. Each wire has 4 connections on either end meaning that I have 16 more connections to make. I plan on finishing the robot car tomorrow during my free time, so I can show everyone over Thanksgiving break.

I will try to post any changes I make before leaving for vacation...

Week 12 Almost Over...

Yup. It is hard to believe, but week 12 is just about over. I usually end up being in this state of mind after my Technical Math class on Wednesdays because Thursdays and Fridays are easy days. My 2-hour Expository Writing lab is canceled for Friday which means that I only have 2 hours of classes both Thursday and Friday. It also means that I will be able to go home for week sooner than I normally would.

I was originally planning on posting some updates for my robot car, with pictures, but I didn't make any real progress with it today. I was only able to get 2 wires setup so that they can be connected to my computer chips. I didn't see any reason to post a picture when the changes that were made were minimal. Soldering the wires can be extremely annoying sometimes because the wires have to be soldered to this tiny metal pins. It is hard to solder the wires to these pins because you have to find a way to press the wire against the pin while you are soldering it without melting the plastic piece that the pins are inside of and without melting the insulation around the wires.

It is okay that I didn't manage to finish my robot car today. My professor told me that the lab room is always open for students to use. I am planning on making it down to the lab room during my free time tomorrow and possibly on Friday. I would really like to get this robot car complete before vacation since my solder iron at home has a screw missing. I will be sure to post about any updates like usual...

One last thing, the picture above is of a flashlight I got from the Vermont Tech Open House last summer. I am thinking about rewiring it so it is part of my robot car. It should look pretty damn cool. :-)

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that I received a 98 on my last essay! The assignment was to write a compare & contrast essay start-to-finish in a 2-hour Friday lab. I finished my essay after about 45 minutes to an hour and I received a 98 on it! The last essay that I received a 98 on was my response to the New Orleans documentary, "When The Levees Broke." These two essays are my highest graded essays this semester! I turned in my Example essay on Wednesday. I am hoping that it is graded in the 90's like all the other ones. :-)

Robot Car Almost Complete...

I was able to make some major progress on my robot car today. I managed to build the Analog Controller Board, and the Sensor Board. The Analog Controller Board is the board with the white knobs on it. I can use the knobs on this board to adjust how quickly each tire will back up when the car detects a wall/obstacle. The Sensor Board is self explanatory as it is simply the board that has the sensors on it.

The next and final step is to test all of my chips to confirm that everything has been built right. After I test the chip I will have to make some wires to connect the chips to one another. It won't be long before the car is complete. I can't wait to show it off to everyone. :-)

Start of Week 11

It is now the start of week 11. It is hard to believe that there are only a few more weeks left until this semester ends. I have a week-long Thanksgiving break coming up soon. I am really looking forward to having some time off, and I am hoping that it doesn't cause me to forget anything from the week before. Sometimes it requires some extra studying to freshen up on topics that I have started to forget. It is a good practice to re-study old material because it will make new concepts easier to learn.

Over the weekend I went with my parents to visit my Aunt Helen and Uncle Jim. My cousin Daniel came back from Alaska so a great portion of my mom's side of the family was there. My parents decided to take everyone out to a fancy restaurant called "The Cow Palace." This was the second time that I had been to this restaurant, and the last time we had over 20 people. This time we had about 15 people and my parents tipped the waitress $100. Needless to say she was pretty excited about that.

Academically I don't have anything new going on. I know that I will definitely be working on my robot car on Wednesday. As usual, I am looking forward to Wednesday. Hopefully I will have some more stuff to post on the blog this week. With me working on my robot car on Wednesday I can guarantee that I will post on that day. :-)

Next Chip For My Robot Car

I wasn't able to work on my robot car this week because we did a lab about capacitors. We found out that capacitors are basically just strips of foil separated by a strip of plastic, usually rolled into a tube shape. When finished the chip pictured above will have 4 different knobs to adjust how quickly the car will back up when it detects walls.

To understand how these knobs will adjust the speed at which the car would back up, we basically did an experiment to see how a change in voltage over time could affect the speed of the car. I believe that next week I will be able to work on my robot car again. I might even do some work on it over the weekend when I go home. I am hoping that the construction of this chip goes just as well as the charger board did.

I realized that I had only posted once this week, so I decided I would take a picture of the next chip I will be building. I will be sure to take a picture of the finished product and post it on the blog also.

It is almost the end of week 10, and I am looking forward to going home this weekend... :-)

Expository Writing - Exam Graded

It is the start of week 10, and winter is on the way. It is going to suck having to walk to my classes in blizzards etc, but I do think that it will be much better than waiting for a school bus only to have it not show up after 20 minutes of waiting. I got my Expository Writing exam back today, and I also got my Fundamentals of Circuits I quiz back today from last week. My Expository Writing exam consisted of two 1-hour parts spread out over two days. This is the only exam that we have had for this class. I almost want to say that it is the only one that we will be having this year. It is week 10 and there are only 4 more to go after this (not including Thanksgiving break). After Thanksgiving break I will only have 2 weeks until the end of the semester. I think that next semester I will have a class in C programming.

Anyway, on to the results of my tests. On my Fundamentals of Circuits quiz I received an 11 out of 10! This is technically 110%. I answered a bonus question on the quiz correctly, and my quiz was perfect. :-) For my Expository Writing 2-hour exam (longest exam yet) I receive a 98! Yup. I am still rolling out the good grades... with the exception of Intro. to Technical Math... I will pass the class, but I would like to improve my grade as much as I can to be 100% sure. I shouldn't allow a poor grade in a math class ruin what would be an awesome GPA with the rest of my classes... :-)

Robot Car / Had 3 Tests Today

I forgot to post on the blog last week that I wasn't able to work on my robot car because I had a normal lab. I did manage to work on it today though. I carefully drilled the holes into the wheels using a drill press so that they could be attached to the motors. I also had to attach these components known as capacitors to each of the motors.

The capacitors have a pretty cool effect. I think they give the motors more power. I noticed that even though each wheel has its own motor, I can turn one wheel and it will turn the wheel on the other side. It is really cool. I think that the capacitors hold a charge, and when I turn one of the wheels it releases the electricity to the charger board, and it then gets transferred to the other motor. If you are wondering what capacitors are, they are the orange, squarish looking things attached to the motors. If you look closely enough you should be able to point them out. I have 3 more boards to work on, and then I need to attach them to the robot car. I think that I might have the largest portion of the robot car complete.

In other news, I had a 1-hour exam in Expository Writing today, and quizzes in Fundamentals of Circuits and Digital Circuits. I am pretty sure that I did a really good job on all 3 of the tests, which is nice to know. The 1-hour exam that I had today was only the first part of the Expository Writing exam. I have the second 1-hour exam for the class on Friday, and I also have a Process Essay due that same day. My Expository Writing professor told us that after Thanksgiving break the work will slow down quite a bit.

My classes have been going really well so far. I really need to get my Technical Math grade back up to where it used to be, so I don't have to worry about it so much. I am passing the class, which is nice, but I would like to have at least an 85 in the class. We are currently on a unit that I have never covered before, so I have really been focusing on how everything works.

I meant to type this earlier, but I got distracted by a few different things (PS3, Laptop etc...).
I haven't been posting on the blog as much as I used to because I am running out of things to post. It is also quickly slipping into winter, so there isn't really anything to take a picture of outside...

It is almost 1:00 AM. I normally would not stay up this late, but I don't have my first class until 11:00 AM (later today). :-) I am going to get ready to pass out now...

Apple Picking & Most Recent Essay Grade

Last week my Fundamentals of Circuits professor, professor Vandermark, asked everyone in my class if they would be interested in helping him pick some VTC apples to donate to the local food shelf. I decided that since I didn't have anything else going on I might as well lend a hand. There were 2 other students that showed up for the apple picking, so my professor, the other 2 students and I all picked apples from the various trees that are roughly behind my dorm building. It was a fun and easy way to help people out, so I had no problem devoting my time to it. If I remember correctly, we picked about 2-3 boxes of apples.

In other news, I got another essay back from my Expository Writing professor. I keep thinking to myself, "There is no way I did better than my last essay," and I am always wrong. I received a 98 on this essay. That means that I got an almost-perfect grade. It really won't surprise me if my next essay doesn't top this 98, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. My professor told me that this essay was the, "Strongest essay [she's] read this semester..." My next essay is a called a Process essay. I am writing about how to properly string a guitar, and the different things to take into consideration. If I want to follow my pattern I will have to get at least a 99, or I will have to get a 100. Yup, very unlikely... :-)