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...