end wk4 – more burn, spring exams

TOTALLY BURNED THIS WEEK, nuff said. skipped 335 hw (1 allowed) and BSed 375 lab report, and worked through everything else. unnecessary details, but I’m totally lacking my beauty sleep! hahaha.

next week: 335 exam, 453 exam, 375 lab report, 375 prelab, 307 hw, 347 prelab, 347 lab report, 228 hw, 453 lab3, 453 prog3, spring job fair. YAY!

got my tech elective form signed, need to turn it in and do my graduation evaluation… :O

spring exams:
week 3: csc453 M 4/14
week 4: ee307 F 4/25
week 5: csc453 M 4/28, ee335 W 4/30
week 6: ee228 W 5/7
week 7: csc453 M 5/12
week 8: ee307 M 5/19
week 9: ee335 W 5/28, csc453 F 5/30
finals: ee335 M/W choice, ee347 T, ee228 W, ee307 F, csc453 F

Kingston 2gb SD card for $0.72 shipped, yay for GCO and disposable credit card numbers and college addresses!

Mission College registration – april 28.

call me crazy for doing so much, but what can I say.. this is how it was meant to be.

digsby

from brim’s suggestion, I’ve been trying out digsby as a new IM client… I’m impressed, so far. (and i’m REALLY picky.) AIM, MSN, Google Talk, gmail+hotmail and even Facebook integration. still in beta, but has a lot of customizable features (but there’s never too many.) we’ll see how long this lasts. The engine is like Pidgin’s; it’s a RAM eater, but that’s fine with me.

• I miss a few things though.. direct IMs, working file transfers [port opening/specifying?], webcam support [not that I even use it anymore – it supports linking to TokBox..], away/mobile/idle statuses on the buddy list – old school AIM style..
• I like.. unicode support, ‘<‘ and ‘>’ support without AIM interpreting it as HTML, mousing over screennames to see infos, server-side buddy lists [unlike Pidgin], pasting is always plaintext, real-time logging + midnight splitting [yeah really old deadaim = lol], setting my own time before I show up as idle, buddy list split by service + alphabetical sorting..
• I want.. everything that I miss, disable-able “close” button on IM tabs (it’s in Pidgin!), mouseover MSN names to tell me if they have me on my buddy list (Pidgin has it! although.. I could find it manually..), and just more customization in general.

Until I figure out a way to suggest things, I’m just jotting my initial notes here..
— Oh snap, I just found “Suggest a feature” on the Help menu, LOL.

and after I installed this, AIM 6 magically stopped lagging.. bleh.

ok, to week 4 of school..! ricky fighting! [because no one will say it for me..]

• ee 228 hw2, hw3, quiz [~8 hours]
• ee 335 hw3, lab2 report, prelab3 [~10-13 hours]
• ee 307 hw4, prelab3, lab3 report [~15 hours]
• csc 453 lab2, program2 [~20 hours]

ok, i don’t even have that many hours this week [only around 45] if i work ALL my time.. but! I did around 15 hours of that work this weekend.. so I should have barely enough time.

• and.. buy more pork country style ribs, and make more yummy yummy char siu! .. and finish up my dying vegetables.. 3-4 meals gai lan, 2 meals bok choy, 2-3 meals broccoli..
• and clean up for angela visiting next weekend! :D not that my room is ever messy to begin with.. i just want to vacuum (for the 4th?.. time this quarter..) and get my stupid bed issues sorted out, for those of you who knew about the bites..

blah blah blah TO WORK! and I’ll be skipping 9am ee 335 this entire week.

burn baby burn

this week was so exhausting.. i don’t even know.. 307 hw, 307 quiz, 335 hw, 375 lab report, 375 + 347 prelab (lol), 347 lab report.

staying out extra late is bad for my sanity, and eating fast food for dinner then lunch isn’t good for my stomach, either.

seriously, all I did was work for 2 classes all week and completely neglected the others. this is outrageous. I need to pick up.. even more pace. and now those 2 classes are steering from trivial to easy/moderate-ish.. blah.

first exam: csc 453, 54/60. -2 for knowing the wrong thing (lol), -2 for really not knowing something, and -2 for sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, &sa, NULL); when he asked to “block” – but really, he meant to just pause(); to “wait”. there were craploads of As since it was an easy test, but I still got one.. thankfully.. I believe 53 was the lowest A, so there was a tiny curve.

this weekend: 228 hw, 453 lab + program [learn regex!.. in OS..?], full body + room cleaning with insecticide hopefully to finally be done with bug/bite/itch/rash problems, followed by laundry.. 375 lab #2 report, 347 prelab3/lab report 3 prewrite..

this is the last of my core EE/CS stuff. the rest is just fun (networks, programmable logic) and tech electives (“fun” of choice). probably won’t be fun considering the fact that I considered digital logic fun.. and 307 is .. well, not that bad, but extremely draining. 347, the 1-unit lab for it = 1 more draining than 307, the 1 unit lecture..

this is ridiculous, I should have just gone 5 years (after 2-quarter co-op?) since the start or washed out GEs/math/physics faster..

another useless school rant.. just sulk it up and keep going..

summer 2008 plans (or lack thereof)

I wanted to take Korean 1 this summer at De Anza to fill my Cal Poly C1 elective, and Chem 1A at Mission to fill the freshman Chem that I still haven’t taken yet.. And Political Science 1 online next summer or something, since I probably won’t be in SJ. If I was, I’d have a bit more breathing room, but this 2/1 plan is what I gotta do..

Now taking Chem online for 7 weeks (and having to attend in class on Fridays) and Korean from 6-9:40 5 days a week for three (wow) weeks seems possible, but not so much with an internship. For 3 weeks I’d have to like, work 7-5 and class 6-9:40 or something.. lol.

And then I probably wouldn’t even be able to work at all on Fridays.. damn damn damn.
Should have taken chem in one of the past 3 summers..

I will figure out a solution to this soon enough.

Chem at Mission is 6/16 – 7/31.
Korean at De Anza is 6/30 – 7/18.
Xilinx (which may or may not happen, or something else may happen) would be July+August.

this week sucked

let’s see.. 307 hw twice, 335 hw, 2 375 labs, 307 quiz, 347 prelab + lab report of insanity, 228 quiz, 453 lab and program..

seemed so overwhelming even though it was barely anything.. i didn’t even do my 347 prelab, the lab report of death was group death, i didn’t even study for the 228 quiz and did pretty well, and “finished” the 453 work before school even started..

looks like i need to pick up the pace and work out more efficient daily plans.. since every week should be like this.

[23:28] <yoshii> so i told my roommate to pay me 466.67 + 19.31 + 28.80 = 514.78
[23:29] <yoshii> and he paid me 513.98
[23:29] <yoshii> how does that happen?

what the PAPER?

turned in csc453 lab today – 9 source files and 9 test outputs printed on PAPER.. with my makefile showing my name on front. mine was around 40 pages.

now multiply that by 70 students. that is a lot of wasted paper.
i couldn’t even staple it properly. i had to like 75% staple it from front to back, and then again for back to front.

handin was made for a reason. ugh.

birthday random

20, nothing short of amazing since every year it’s just people (and food) that matter.

granted i am here at SLO with not much to do, I shifted classes to an earlier schedule (for another reason too) and got out at 1 with Peter. thought of places to eat and couldn’t, eventually ended up at Firestones. haven’t had tri-tip since last May with Amos and Isaiah. used Teresa’s Jamba Card too =) since I never get Jamba Juice. it’s my birthday, I’ll do whatever the hell I want to! (which doesn’t get very far..)

then just went back to my place and chilled while doing ee 335 hw. yeeeeep.

thanks to every single person that said happy birthday in some way. yes, every single one. EVERY one. that includes you. =)

that is.. in order: christine [god, so many.. tran socal highschool], teresa [.. my sister], amos, sophia, isaiah, juli, jean, alex [12:00:04!], peter, vina, tina, chennis, nickie, leesar, richard, an, stephanie, myo, michellely, my mom!, honglan [this is easier.], teresa L, cindy l, vinnary, eric, to, david, munjal, julie, sang, laura, hao, michelle, philip, linda, andel, jennifer, paola, hilong, susan, jo, kat, lena, cj, rachel, ann, xtiney, cynthia, lisa, jenn, kat, leslie, paulina, frances, kim. hopefully that’s all, otherwise my robust skills are not so robust.

except angela =x but it’s okay, you were busy with stuff today and I still don’t know your exact birthday either D:.. i’m terrible.

school is getting tough, and it’s week 2. well.. ee228 (continuous sig/sys) is cake, csc453 (OS) is easy, ee335 (transmission lines) and ee307 (digital elec/ICs) are so-so.

first week + 453 + scheduling etc

i got to add the afternoon section of 453 after trying to convince the old man for so long. it’s such a complicated mess that .. sucks.

the 10-12 section of 453 conflicts with 307, but I could squeeze it in if I moved 9am ee335 to 8am, and 10am ee307 to 9am. i would have had it with Brim and Parag if I did that.. not that it even matters. I couldn’t do it now, since Braun’s 307 is stuffed to all hell. I would also have been able to enroll in 453 right away back when it was registration time, since it wasn’t full (and the afternoon one was.) so I could have just avoided this whole mess by sulking it up and accepting 8am every day with 4 EECS classes in a row from 8-1. but.. I didn’t want to do that.. for several reasons. I like that extra hour.. and I didn’t want that much without a break in between. the first few days were all gloomy and cold, but the past 2 days it felt fine getting up way early.. it doesn’t seem so bad after all. and with a proper breakfast (hah), I could probably last until 1 before going home for the day to eat lunch. oh well. in the short term it seems doable, but as the quarter progresses i’d probably dread it more and be more exhausted.

so now I’m in a 37-man class when the “max” is 30, and should attend the other section when there is an exam. it’s a complicated mess, but today was the second lecture and a good number of people didn’t show up – in the end, there was 1 extra chair. anyways, some of the 453 stuff right now is just silly. all 315 (computer architecture) and 357 (unix systems programming) review — and I already know it all. the old fellow isn’t a top-notch CSC professor like the others, so I’ve been a bit spoiled. it was hard trying to work out a system for me to take the class, describing how i needed that section this quarter.

aside from all that crap, the first week is over. so far, so good. 228 and 453 have been very easy, 335 has been moderate and 307 (expecting hell) hasn’t been all that bad. I actually understood Braun’s first real lecture… thankfully. 347 lab was death – Braun kept us in the lab for the full 3 hours talking for 1-1.5 hours over the SYLLABUS (omfg), 30-45 minutes on lab report style, and ~30 minutes on troubleshooting, and like ~30 minutes working out a prelab on SPICE. Brim wants to bail, but me, him, and Joel are a “dream team”. nonetheless, I have homework all over the place and have to do a good amount this weekend. during the week, i’ve just been reading all the texts (but lacked time for actual doing of homework D:) and settling in – cooking/etc, getting enrollment issues down, doing random productive things.

time to reset productivity times to afternoons and evenings, and sleeping schedules to like.. 12:30-8:30.

i bought an 8600gt for $31.. what do i do with it?

that’s all for now in my boring boring life, i suppose. =P

ooh yeah, turning 20 soooooooooon!

lame’d 453

class full as hell, me and several others didn’t get in. needless to say.. i felt like crap afterwards, again. last quarter was ok because it was just chem, but this time i realized that i really need this section, this quarter, to graduate on time. he was taking “seniors” first, instead of going through the waitlist.

“the waitlist disappeared, i don’t know why” — i hate to ridicule on a public blog like this, but you’d think that after so many years of teaching, you know that the system clears the waitlists on a certain date (which is announced) before class starts. so that people can enroll when they get permission numbers. most professors keep a copy before it clears. whatever. more and more incompetency is something i’ve been dealing with.

back to where i was — haha, fall quarter my roommate was joking about how someone got denied and walked out and yelled “FUCK”. well, when i didn’t get into chem last quarter, i thought about doing that too. but this time, the parking lot got a nice big loud “FUCK” on the way home. i realized how much i needed it and how it was impossible to go along without it (unless i want to shift around everything i have AND graduate a quarter later.. which completely ruins the point..)

so i emailed him with proper explanations, begging about how my case was very close but not the same to seniors in their “last” quarter at school. i’ll show up to the next lecture too. and i did the first (of 4) program and lab.. haha.

damn, that would have been a good time to say “i’m graduating”. guy wouldn’t even know. i just never have balls to do so.

spring quarter of hell day 1

got back to SLO around 1am monday morning, settled things around before sleeping at 3. woke up at 11 and it was so cold.. did a whole lot of cleaning, moving, with some eating in between. took my time, and fortunately, finished just right about when the new roommate came at 4. i broke my sandals while pivoting my feet to move the dresser.. need super glue that i left at home D:! tried engineering a rubber band to stick it together, and it works, but it still sucks. spent the day doing random productive things.. and yeah. had to sleep “early”.

fortunately tuesday was my easiest (Monday off, thanks Cesar Chavez! haha.) but it is freezing at 9am. my lazy minimalist butt doesn’t enjoy walking further than the EECS buildings (which are conveniently at the corner of campus next to home), so going to and finding my first class (EE 335 – Electromagnetic Fields and Transmission) was meh. not bad.

class seems kinda interesting, i always wondered the effect of transmission lines on signals and whatnot. apparently the class is really hard though. 2 midterms @ 45% each with 4 questions and choose 3, with an optional final that can only bring up a grade. and everyone still “fails” but he tries to give as many As and Bs out as he can with this kinda grading.. anyways, I kinda laughed to myself when I was like.. “okay.. just 6 problems, and I got this class down.” watch me weep and explode at how hard they are, in a couple weeks.

ee228 seems alright. in order of increasing difficulty, i’m predicting..
ee 228 ≈ csc 453.. 453 with connely has gotta be fairly easy (moderate). 228 with zhang.. same thing. i felt like a sophomore again as she gave basic definitions for 20 minutes of lecture..
ee 335. hard, but at the same time, not that much.. and a huge curve.
and then ee 307. braun kills. period.

we’ll see what tomorrow has to bring. i spent around 6 hours today doing a crapload of mini programs for the first 453 lab, and i’m not even enrolled in the class yet. (and the first day is tomorrow.) holy crap… i better get in.

this quarter: do the damn work (ahead of time, if possible) and stress less. and study/review more. and.. get As.