Well, I suppose I should update this thing. I'm bored, and I don't feel like doing my homework, and since I haven't written anything in here in a while, this feels like a great way to use some time.

For starters, I don't think I've written yet this semester, but I am back in Mansfield. My semester started out great (cough cough), because I had to leave home early to work on my first night back until midnight. Then I had Analog Electronics the next morning at eight thirty, and I figured that it would be a pretty cool class. Unfortunately, I figured wrong. My professor, while extremely intelligent, is completely lacking in two major areas. One, he does not seem to live in the same reality that the rest of us reside in. For example, last week he asked us to take a quiz on material that was not covered in class (because we have yet to cover any material in class, which would not have been so bad if the material had been in the book. However, I have been reading the book (because, like I said, he's not really teaching us anything), and none of the information was there, either. The other area he's lacking in is understandability. We have already had two homework assignments due, and though I have yet to turn in the second one because I do not know how to do it, I finished the first one. However, I had to go to his office for help on the first homework assignment, and not only did he not seem to understand that I was confused, he simply took one look at the problem and said, "It's as easy as this." Then he plopped an answer down, and I really had to spend a bit more time looking at what he had done before I really understood what was going on. His understandability isn't helped by the fact that he has a very thick accent. Now I have to go to his office again to ask him about the second assignment, which was due on Thursday, but I didn't have time to start it until Wednesday and he hasn't had office hours that I could attend since.

My other classes are mostly better. With the exception of Linear Algebra, which is moving extremely slow and is very boring, I am having a good time in my classes. I really like Modern Physics because right now we're working with special relativity, which is awesome. Basically, as things approach the speed of light, which is a constant no matter what inertial reference frame it is in, time dilates and distances shrink. Topology is pretty cool, too, because we've been spending our time with proofs for the past few weeks and we should be moving into topological spaces soon. Differential Equations is a great class, too. Uncle Phil (our professor) is a funny guy, and he moves at a great pace. I love the class because on the first day, he handed us our syllabi, then said, "That's the bureaucratic nonsense. Let's get started." Then we moved right into the material. I love it.

Otherwise, I had a few other setbacks this semester as well. My friend Tara, left Mansfield for a different school this semester. I was getting really good at ping pong because of her, and now I have no one to play pong with at twelve thirty at night when I can't sleep. I've had a few other minor things here and there that have left me feeling pretty alone at times, too.

The good news, though, is that I am really getting into Math Club this semester, and we already had one great Math Club party that I had a really good time at. Also, I have made a few other friends lately that have been around to hang with now. I've got a long time before I can come home again, though, and I'm really hoping this semester gets a little better. Work is boring, but because I'm working four nights a week till twelve thirty and getting up at seven five days a week, I'm exhausted most of the time. Still, the money is nice and I really need it right now.

Oh well. I've said all I can think to say. I'll update again when I think about it.

Later,
Joshua

Heading Home for the Holidays

Well, I am heading home on Wednesday for my holiday break. I am pretty well packed already and extremely excited to go home. I took my Ed Psych final today and aced it (like there were many other options on such an easy test), and am preparing for my physics final on Wednesday morning. After Physics at eight (yuck), I have a Calculus final at 10 and a Discrete Structures final at 1. I'm not worried at all about Calc; Howard gives us a practice test that spells out exactly what will be on the test, and everything we've done so far has been fairly easy. I'm a little worried about Discrete, but most of the test is a review, and I'm not worried about the new stuff. In fact, the test should be a breeze if I study the one section that I had a little difficulty with before the last test. All in all, my Physics test is going to be by far my hardest test.

Where does that put my grades, one might ask? Well, currently I have an A for sure in Ed Psych, and unless I do something really stupid, and A in Calc and Discrete. I have an A currently in Physics, but that could change if I mess up the final enough, though I think I'll keep that A. The only class I'm honestly unsure of is English Composition 2. Last week the class ended when we finished revising our essays, of which we had to write two. I originally got an B on the first one and an A- on the second, and my professor said that it is impossible to get a worse grade. I did all of the other assignments as well, so I am sure that I'll have at least an A- for the semester. I'm hoping that I was able to pull that up to an A with the revisions. I put a lot more effort into that class than I put into most of my other classes this semester and I would like to see it pay off.

For now, though, I'm just bored. I have sheets in the washer, that I need to go move to the drier in a few minutes. I have to work tonight at six. Tomorrow I'm planning on going swimming in the morning to waste some time and destress before my Physics final. Otherwise, I have little left to do here in Mansfield before I leave on Wednesday directly after my last final exam. There are a few more things that need to be packed, like my computer and some clothes that I'll be washing tomorrow, but for the most part I'm ready to get the heck outta here. I've got a lot planned over the break, and my only wish is that I had some source of income. If anyone needs someone to shovel and salt their walk-/drive-ways, let me know. I'll gladly do it for a small fee. Otherwise, I'm thinking of selling some of my pokemon cards as a way to get rid of some old things that I don't need and possibly make some money in the process. How much do you think I can get for the entire original base set?

Well, I have to go switch over my laundry. I'll probably post again soon.

Later,
Joshua

Mid-Terms are Due

Well, it's that time again, the middle of the semester. All of my professors are preparing to submit the grades for midterms, but I'm not really worried. To be honest, this semester has been extremely boring for me. I really enjoy Physics and Discrete Structures, but the work isn't difficult. The rest of my classes are not really enjoyable for me. I just go to them because I have to, and I really hate looking at classes like that.

For one, I really wish that calculus was a faster pace. If we were doing more, I'd probably really like that class, too, but as it goes, we're still working on partial derivatives and haven't even started anything fun yet. I really wish I had my professor from the last two semesters of calculus. Haner made the class fun and interesting, and kept a fairly decent pace. Howard (he likes us to call him Howard because his wife, also Dr. Iseri, works in the math department here as well), uses way too many examples and really assigns more work than necessary. We get homework every night, but none of it is anything more than busy work. The homework never helps reinforce the lesson in any way other than having more examples. Either way, I've been fairly annoyed with calculus, and though I try to have fun, find it difficult when I have yet to learn anything new.

Educational Psychology is even worse. I go to that class three times a week and wonder why I'm wasting my time there. The professor comes in and talks in circles for an hour, and I leave more confused than when I came in. I don't know what we're doing in the class, and I can't figure out what the point of the class is, either. I've sat in there for half a semester already, and still haven't found one thing worth committing to memory. I've taken a test and two quizzes, though, and aced them all, so I guess I'm "learning."

English Composition II is another story. Going to class is annoying because the class is built around debate and in class writing. Granted, this structure wouldn't be so bad, if the professor gave us more than five minutes to write and if the students that generally enter into the debates weren't the stubborn idiots that put forth an opinion with nothing to back it up and refuse to listen to reason. We just had our first essay handed back, and I got a C+, which is apparently decent for him. I found out today that just about everything I ever learned about grammar was pretty much a lie. I got an F on the grammar portion of the essay, though I thought I did fairly well. Either way, I had to do a paper about all of the grammar mistakes I made, looking up all of the mistakes in the grammar book we were given and giving a reason why I was wrong and writing the correction out. I think he does it for theatrics, to be honest. I looked around the class, and every single person had an F for grammar. It's just annoying that he's going to drag my grade down because I put a comma in where it may or may not have been used, but whatever.

Either way, my semester is really not difficult. There's a lot of work to be done, but mostly I'm just...existing. I really miss Megan, and I think I'm borderline depressed. I don't seem to have the same emotions that I usually do. I'm not sleeping well, and I'm tired all the time. I don't know how to describe it, but most of the time I go around just feeling blah. I don't want to do my work, or much of anything, really. I've been trying to work out regularly, which I think would help, but getting the will to go work out is really difficult. I don't know what else to do, really. Hopefully this will end next semester, but in the mean time, I'm just going to go on existing.