Category Archives: School

Not much left in my room… except Christmas Stuff!!!!

Life Musings, School

I suppose I should post since I haven’t in a while. I’m officially done with everything class-related. I had an Operating Systems final on Tuesday that went, in my opinion, fairly well. I spent the rest of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday getting my room completely packed up into all the crates and boxes I had left. My parents came on Thursday and we loaded up the van and cleaned the apartment. It was probably the most prepared for a move that I’ve ever been.

In the middle of loading the van, I got a surprise phone call! Without detailing too much in a public journal, I’ll just say I was finally able to go pick up some things that had been sitting in a warehouse for two and a half years!! It was like Christmas going through everything last night and seeing what I had been missing. I’ve been cataloging everything, even the big pile of CDs I’m accumulating that will be tossed. I definitely have something to keep me busy the rest of today! Unfortunately, I think I AM still missing some of my favorite country CDs… but with getting everything else back…. it’s really not that huge of a deal. One thing’s for sure… I used to spend WAAAY too much money on DVDs. This effectively tripled my current (new) DVD stash! Finally, I have my “Back to the Future” and “Short Circuit”s back! Among others…

Anyway, in other news, I officially graduate Saturday (ooh, I guess that’s tomorrow) morning. That has DEFINITELY not sunk in yet. Oh well… exciting times ahead for me!

Last two weeks of my primary educational career

School

So… I only have this week, next week (dead week), and finals (only one final), and then I’m done with 22 years of education. Wow.

Okay, so it really hasn’t quite sunk in, but around this time each semester, I usually post about what I have left to do. I’m also usually quite stressed about it. Not at all this semester. Maybe it’s the senioritis; maybe it’s just because all my classes are more or less done. But I’m definitely relaxing and not too worried about these last few days. I have two exams and two presentations left. That’s pretty much it. Detailed remaining activities follow…
Continue reading Last two weeks of my primary educational career →

The semi-annual class (p)review entry

School

With 18 credits including 3 labs, senior design (not one of those three), and choir, this semester is promising to be pretty hectic. But I think it may actually be manageable… especially if I won’t be driving for CyRide. It seems like only one course will have a final exam, and as far as it looks right now, I don’t have to spend any money on textbooks!

CprE 308 – I hear this is a toughie, but if I read the book, sit near the front, and pay attention, I should be good for a semester
CprE 483 – My 4-credit elective: the only test is a midterm, the rest of the grades come from a project that is very similar to the one we did in the pre-req course. Should be manageable.
CprE 485 – Java – Instructor’s fun, material looks pretty simple. Quizzes, but no aparent exams. Plus I hear this is a typically easy course. I could use one of those this semester.

532, portfolio, and senior design are coming up later this week, but I have a small inkling about what each are going to be like. The added time from not working should help me pull off halfway-decent grades to graduate with. We’ll see!

Slightly stressful weekend

Family, School

Unlike previous weekend updates, I can’t say this one was “great!” Although spending time with Amanda is always fun, I had a few too many things to do that caused just a little bit of stress.

First of all, I had the com sci midterm on Monday night… so I was spending some hours studying for that. The larger part was fleshing out the Design Doc for Sr. Design. That I spent probably 8 stressful hours Saturday/Sunday night working on. Without going into a giant rant about it, I’ll just say I was not happy… with the content I had to work with, with the computer I was working on, and the insanely slow dial-up internet. I’m so glad Amanda puts up with my ranting phone calls and keeps me in line!

Oh… to clarify. I stayed in Waverly through Sunday night because my uncle’s funeral was on Monday morning in Waukon, IA. So… that’s what I did on Monday. Couple hours up to the funeral, then 3.5 hours back to Ames just in time for the Com Sci midterm.

The good news is the midterm went very well. Even though I was almost sick going into it, I felt I understood everything on it, and was feeling a lot better afterwards. Couple Voyagers, pizza, and bed made for a good night!

Annoying Nokias

School

Ugh. I’m tired of my cell phone not being a reliable alarm. I had it set for 7:00am this morning, so I’d have time to get ready for my 8:00 exam. Woke up really groggy thinking, due to the light, it must still be before 6. After laying in bed for awhile, I decided to pick up my phone (the nearest clock I could see without my glasses) and saw that it was 7:40. I jumped out, got dressed, packed my pag, and ran out to the bus within 4 minutes. Pretty impressive… but I was still groggy and didn’t have any time to prepare for the test. Still… I think it went well. I knew most of what was on it. Guess we’ll see when the grades come out.

Now onto algorithms, networking, choir, and senior design. Nice long day for me.

I have brakes!

Life Musings, School

Yay! I have brakes on my car. Thanks to my dispatcher’s husband, I spent about half of what CarX wanted, plus I got a free starter!!! Er… well, once it was all said and done, I spent half as much on brakes+starter as CarX wanted for just the brakes. Okay… I’m confused now.

Anyway… This last weekend was the Iowa State Singers’ Fall Retreat. Pretty fun; met a bunch of the new people we have in choir this year. Played “I’ve Never” and landed in the middle more than a couple times. Fell over in my chair to the amusement of everyone else. Yeah! Fun times! Should be a good year with singers.

Since I’m writing this DURING CprE 585, I think I’m closer to making the decision to drop this class. I could use the $60 from the book, and who wouldn’t love three extra hours of free time in the week? Seriously, though… I can’t understand the instructor, and I’m seriously questioning how much I will use this material in my future career.

Three small paragraphs… three seperate subjects. Sweet!

next-to-last college semester!

School

… is this thing on? check… 1, 2, 3…

Hey cool. This thing does still work. Sorry about not updating… I was enjoying the last weeks of summer to the fullest extent. (that and I’ve been trying to get away from the computer more often)

So, it’s the third day of classes and, if I had to give a rating to the start of the semester, it would be slightly below average. Then again, yesterday was an all-around bad day, so maybe it’s not as bad as it seems. Anyway, classes review to continue…

Continue reading next-to-last college semester! →

Think I’ll stay in singers!

School

So apparently, Iowa State Singers are going to go on an all-expenses (hopefully, mostly) paid trip to LA next February for the national ACDA (American Choral Director’s Association) convention. I guess it’s the next step up for last spring’s South Dakota performance, which I unfortunately missed because I was dreadfully sick. Everyone in the choir talked about how it was the most memorable experience of their lives, and I missed it 🙁 . Maybe I’ll get a chance to experience a similar situation next February. Have to miss a week of class/work really early on, but hopefully it’s worth it!

Speaking of being sick, though. I was feeling ill last night and also today. I think I just need to cut cheese entirely out of my diet. But that would be so sad!