Well, I have nearly completed my first week back at school. And it's just been a joyful experience, that's for sure.
I had a realization this morning. I'm not sure where I missed this in my first 12 years of shaving, but it occurred to me that the reason I've never been able to get a perfectly smooth shave is because I shave with in the direction of your hair growth, not against. To be fair, it can be bad for you skin to shave against the hair, but it certainly gives a cleaner cut. Speaking of cuts, I hate my chin. So does my razor. Thankfully I have a magical styptic pen that saved me from bleeding all over myself.
I got to the computer lab just before 8. There wasn't much to do, so I just started working through problems in my FM book. There are two modules that I need to understand better, but I wanted to start refreshing myself on some of the older material so I can just keep everything up to date. Timbo came in around 8:10 and did some work as well. I got through about 20 problems, had to look in the book for 5 of them, but got them all correct. One of those that I looked up was discussed in a chapter that I had not yet read, so I didn't feel bad about looking it up. Then it was off to Life Con. Today we discussed consequences of having probability that is contingent on the life of two people. Many of the principles can be applied from Life Con 1 (which I took in the fall), so most of the class he just re-wrote equations that we needed to know, making slight adjustments for the necessary changes between having one random variable to two random variables. Then he discussed our take home quiz. Dr. Foley writes a lot. Which is good because I always have the important points written down, but I have a difficult time listening for content and writing. It was a huge problem last semester in my stats class, but it's not as bad in Foley's classes (so far, anyhow). Also I tried to understand Jordan's magical pen. I think it records voice while your write? But I didn't quite grasp how it knows when to record or such. Also, before class we had a very in-depth discussion about breakfast food. Apparently there's a difference between pop-tarts and toaster strudels or something. And it seems to be the case that toaster strudels are superior. I also learned: liking eggs is trivial while liking whipped cream is a life or death matter. Who knew?
After class I went to my office for a quick lunch, then back to the computer lab. A little bit after I got there professor Dean came in to burn some DVDs. He was having some trouble, so I tried to help. I learned many things in those 5 minutes. 1: Windows 7 makes burning DVDs incredibly easy. 2: CDs and DVDs look very similar but, in fact, are not the same. So if your disc seems to be too small, you should probably check to see what kind of disc it is. 3: Greek salad dressing leaves a very strong aftertaste. And probably makes me breath smell amazing. Anyhow, we got it figured out and he got his DVDs burned. After he realized that he'd grabbed a disc from the wrong stack and retrieved the proper discs, of course. Then I went back to studying for FM. Just working problems and more problems. One of the calculus (probably integral calculus, I'm assuming) professors came in with a couple of her students to show them how to use Mathematica. She asked if I would be able to help them if they needed it, since she had to get going. I said I would be able to. What I really meant by that was "If they need anything I'm really good at Googling things and using the help menu." But it's practically the same thing... right? Anyhow, I finished one of the non-timed practice exams. There were 35 questions. I think I looked up 5 or 6 of them and missed one of them. Granted these aren't as hard as the actual exam questions, but it was good practice. The book I have includes 6 practice exams that they recommend using to get used to the concepts. Then it includes 5 practice exams that are exam-difficulty and should be taken in a timed environment. I think that I'm going to take my first time exam this weekend sometime. Oh. Joy.
When I got home I did some more studying. I studied most of the afternoon, with a couple short breaks here and there. For dinner I finished off the meatloaf I made the other night. I think that was Tuesday night. Then I did a little more studying and did some more problems. But my brain was just tired. So eventually I just stopped. I tried reading from all three of my classes, but nothing was sticking. Thankfully my brain doesn't hurt or feeling blown out like it used to after a long day of class and studying. Now it just feels like a cup full of water and any new information simply cannot be contained by the cup.
So I just kind of wandered around the apartment keeping myself entertained. I started going through my computer, reading and deleting old unnecessary files. I found one in particular that I enjoyed. I think it ended up becoming a Facebook note. I wrote it about a year ago, during the fall of my senior year at Mount Vernon. It was a reflection of my time at college. It was nice to reflect on that again. So for a while I just sat in my chair, thinking as I like to do. And I as my mind went from place to place, it settled on one of my particular favorite places: social games. When I was in high school, I got bored. Not of any particular thing, just in general. I was bored. So I created a game (if it can be called that) that I still play today. The rules are simple: whenever you talk with someone, play on their field. The challenge for me was to then discover the rules of the other person's field and effectively communicate with them by that person's own rules. This worked well at college. For example. Let's say I was engaged in conversation with a Biology major. First, I would try to understand how that person talks. What sort of words are used, what sort of topics, what opinions on those topics, how is everything presented, how does this fit with the personality of the person... and so forth. Just getting a general feel for "the playing field." Now, I know how I communicate. But sometimes I get bored talking using my own knowledge and experience. So I've learned to ask intelligent questions that teach me about other peoples' areas of interest and ways of thinking. If this particular Biology major had an interest in ethics, seemed to be closed minded, and liked to talk, then I would probably ask questions about his or her beliefs and then ask for evidence-based verification. I would then proceed to do two things: I would learn about that person by they way they answered they question, and I would probably try to secretly make them doubt their own beliefs, using properly timed questions and intricately hidden logical fallacies. Sometimes I don't even necessarily want this person to change his/her mind. I just want people to think. Thinking is such a joyful experience for me and I wish that everyone could achieve the same joy that I do from it.
Another game I like to play (not nearly as involved) is called "Who's online?" This is a simple game that only requires you be very adept at understanding internet culture and various popular websites demographic. For instance, perhaps I see a young business man snapping photos on his Blackberry or iPhone, then typing rapidly. The correct response is probably "Twitter." Or maybe I see a few hipster girls with their Macbooks at the local Starbucks. The natural response would "tumblr." There are many many more, but I'm sure the rules make sense. Well, they make sense to me anyhow.
There are more games, but I won't explain them all now. I just like to have fun. Anyhow, I'm going to bed now. Good night!
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