2010-12-04

For the last week, finals have been brooding severely over my soul. There are no words to describe the intensity of the stress and fear accompanied by the moments before finals; it can only be expressed in numbers. The number is 420,000,000(n) intensity units, where n is an arbitrary constant positive rational number less than 1. And yet I've studied no more than two pithily applicable hours this week. (Hours are applicable in this context if they are spent studying past material.) Instruction of new material continued this week up until Thursday, so I haven't spent much time reviewing. I tried to make time, but the thought of going back to chapter 1 to practice solving a problem that I've entirely forgotten how to solve kept putting me to sleep. My new strategy is to not care, which has relieved the tension that put me to sleep. Luckily I do not have to worry about failing any classes, which is the case for some. The curent entirety of my troubles is getting an A in the classes where doing so is practical. The thing that makes this particularly troublesome is I don't know which classes these are, since my current grades are not easily calculated as they were in high school, which was thanks to Edline. Lately I've been annoyed by the scores of my second midterms. I got a D on my chemistry midterm. Fact: the score was above the class average. Fact: I will be able to drop that test score. Fact: If I got this one question that I totally knew how to do right, I would've gotten a C. Also, I got a B- on my 2nd math midterm. Fact: If I used my brain on the last question, I would've gotten a high A. Why does each question have to matter so much! I do expect an A in my discrete math class, but chemistry and calculus are up in the air! Thank you for listening to my rant and hopefully for sympathizing with me.

Oh so guess what. Like you wouldn't even believe. It's like so cool, cause like, okay. Scope this. I have these strings attached to my door and light switch, so I can close the door and turn my light off and on from my bed. The contraption is ingenious and beautifully simple. There are three strings that run alongside my bed - one for each function. My suite mates dig it. You can't see the one for turning the light off because it runs underneath the bed. Now when Kevin comes in late at night I can shut off the lights and close the door without sitting up. Hahaha.

I went to two study abroad sessions this week. The first was geared toward studying computer science abroad, the second was about Revelle in Rome and Berlin. To be honest, studying Revelle humanities abroad sounds like it could be fun (as well as not fun) and definitely like less fun than studying computer science abroad. I watched this girl's presentation about her trip to Edinburgh university, where they have awesome artificial intelligence classes. It looked quite exciting. I don't want to go to museums in Rome. I can do that anytime. The people that will enjoy that include this chubby guy with thin hair who wears socks and sandals at the same time, and spectacles, and acted all pompous-like. He wants to study ruins in Rome. I want to study computer science in a castle in Scottland!

No-shave November ended on December 1st at midnight. Supercuts was closed (and overpriced, anyway) so I allowed friend-from-Strides Jessie Rosas to cut my hair. Zack offered to help some, and the two of them managed to give me a worse haircut than the haircut you see in horror movies and your nightmares. I had some girls in 350 fix it up some. I shaved my beard and everything else except my arm hair and the top of my head. I'm all clean and shiny and smooth. Be jealous.

I haven't written in my blog for a while, but don't worry, you're not missing out on too much. Class, running (Zack Lee has been running with Strides, which is cool), sleeping, eating (Plaza, Pines, Rubio's and once Round Table pizza), studying (mostly chemistry), chess, working for Pap. Party Coordinator Carrie McFarland hasn't planned any events recently. Shimmy took us to this Indian restaurant a while ago, and I had shrimp tikka masala. It was tasty.

Lastly, I'd like to recognize a special mentionee in my blog today. His name, Officer Matthew Huber, is the name of a person who is the webmaster of Strides as well as Strides' fastest runner. Putting running aside, Matthew is particularly skilled at making scathing remarks and refuting comebacks with impeccable rejoinders. He promoted me a few weeks ago, and I am now a deputy officer/webmaster. We have yet to revamp the Strides website together, but it will happen.