The Disaster of My Final (Necessary) Semester’s Schedule
So remember how I said the fall schedule was up and running?
Yeah, well, my schedule basically sucks for next fall.
Check it out:
(Wow, the blue’s really hard to read. Basically, they’re three philosophy classes).
Now if you know me and my schedule preferences at all, you know how I like to have all my classes in a big block, preferably as early in the day as possible. Yeah, I’m not getting that vibe from this schedule, are you?
Problems:
~I start with freaking Marching Band at 12:30. I’m usually 90% done with classes by that time in the day.
~That 8:00 class on T/R is going to kill me, since I won’t be getting up until 11 AM or so on M/W/F and thus will stay up ’till god knows when.
~Cognitive psych that late in the day for that long? That won’t be fun at all, I’m telling you that right now.
~I want to take Metaphysics…I mean, I REALLY want to take Metaphysics, but it runs from 3:30-5:50 on Mondays, which would cancel out History and Systems of Psychology, which I also really want to take.
Plus, what I’ve got listed there is 22 credits (like I was only going to take the 17 I need to graduate, come on, guys). That’s not counting the one research class (3 credits) I probably should do and the one research class (3 credits) that I really hope I can do (Stat 499: Statistics in the Social Sciences. Doesn’t that sound like it was made for me?!).
So I’m looking at a 28-credit semester next fall. After I promised myself that 25 was my upper limit.
Bad, bad, bad Claudia.
Please note: this schedule will change, I’m almost sure of it.
FINALLY, holy crap!
GUESS WHAT, GUYS?
The fall ’08 schedule is up—FINALLY—at www.uidaho.edu/schedule.
Haha…by the time these blogs get uploaded on to here you’ll probably have seen me and I will have ranted about my schedule (good or bad, I haven’t really worked anything out yet), so this blog will be past news.
Halfway through, still holding strong…
HA! Spring Break, baby! I didn’t think I was going to make it past this week…Monday-Thursday was incredibly stressful. But here I am, at the midpoint of a semester of 25 credits, and holding a 4.0 so far (with 4 out of 9 classes reporting). And the real surprising thing is the fact that I’m holding up surprisingly well. Haven’t crumpled under the stress yet (though I was close on Tuesday, not going to lie). I think I’ve hit my stride with this workload. Unfortunately, I’m very tempted to increase my credit load in the fall to something like 27, but I won’t do that. It’s silly and unnecessary, especially if 6 of my credits next semester are going to be coming from graduate-level statistics classes (which, if they’re both offered, will be the case). I just hope the 4.0 can last until the end of the semester…please, oh please…
Hmm…what else was I going to say in this thing today…
Oh yes! I was going to give you guys an example of a formal proof. This was one of our practice problems, one full of those delicious things we call subproofs! Observe (oh, and the little carat (^) is read as “and,” the little v is read as “or,” that little tilde-like thing at the beginning of the first premise is read as “not,” and _|_ is the symbol for a contradiction. Like that will help at all, but just thought you should know):
Oh, and the goal is to prove R.
This was done in Fitch, the program we use. It’s picky as hell. “Fitch” does not rhyme with “bitch” for no reason, as one person pointed out in our recitation session.
Oh, and an album cover! I like putting wings on things. I’d show you the original, but I’ve lost it (not it it, the picture, it…aw, nevermind).
If we give up our exclamation points, the terrorists win (!!!!!)
Here are some silly pictures from around my room. I’m really, really sick of doing ANOVAs—I’ve been doing them since 3:00 and it’s midnight now—so I fired up the camera and took a few pictures. Be flabbergasted as I bore you to death with my amazing ability to be fascinated with my own crap! Onward!
This is my closet. Notice the lack of boring colors. And just ignore that top shelf on the right, that’s where I chuck my pajamas in the morning. There’s a bunch of other clothes up there…I really don’t know what those are…I could go check, but I’m lazy.
Oh, and did you also notice the ROYGBIV layout? I do it once for garments worn on bottom half of body, then again for garments worn on top half of body. I’m awesome.
I find the gloomy glow of an always-turned-off television to be drab, so I decorated mine with Post-It Notes. I haven’t turned my TV on since they took Futurama off of Adult Swim and I got the whole series on DVD.
This is my desk, where I do my best work (aka my blogs). Yes, that’s a picture of Voltaire on the left there. And yes, those are my Voltaire pins underneath the NASA patch.
I’ve found calendars to be boring and useless for a person like me, who likes to keep it all in her head, so I’ve been reduced to writing silly things on that big old calendar on my desk there. February’s was “LOL IT’S A METAPHOR!” March’s says “25 credits” on every week except next, which says “Holy crap, it’s spring break!!! I don’t have to do ANYTHING for SEVEN WHOLE DAYS! If a god or gods exist, he/she/they LOVE ME! I <3 spring break!”
Yeah.
If the value of “purpose” could be measured negatively, this blog would be approaching a value of negative infinity.
I tried flying by the seat of my pants, but I couldn’t get them certified by the FAA.
Three points of interest today.
1. I need a name for my animations/artwork. Like a business name.
I really need to get back into my artsy-fartsy mindset. I used to be really good at portraits. Plus, I want to start a webcomic, mainly because I’ve been reading PhDComics waaaaaaaaaay too much as of late. But most importantly, my Flash projects! They’re needing a name to go with their crappiness.
So here were my initial thoughts:
Interrobang Productions. If you don’t know what an interrobang is, I feel very, very sorry for you (after all, it’s only the best punctuation mark ever). Unfortunately, that’s already taken.
Mahler Media. It’s FREAKING TAKEN! Damn you, [insert first name here] Mahler in Germany who decided to start making Flash animations before me!
So here was one I just recently thought of:
Irony Mark Productions (or Irony Mark Media, whichever sounds the best). An irony mark is another rarely used punctuation mark; it’s basically a horizontally-flipped question mark. I think it would be a really good name for my crap. Plus, it’s not taken, according to Google. And, if you think it sounds cooler, I could use the alternate name for it and be Snark Productions. Makes me sound arrogant. I like it.
2. Did you ever have one of those “what the hell am I doing in college” moments? Yeah. That was essentially my whole day today. It’s like an out-of-body experience, isn’t it? I was sitting in the research lab plugging numbers for my stats homework and it hit me—what the hell am I doing here?! I can’t be in college! There’s no way I know what I’m doing enough to be given a degree at some point.
Man, I don’t know. I think these 25 credits are messing with my head.
3. I was going to do the Photobucket survey, but the freaking image tags aren’t working and there’s no way I’m uploading all those pictures onto Geocities and then pasting each one by hand into here. Sorry, guys. Maybe later.
Silly Godot…Watches are for PUNCTUALITY
So what brilliant person decided which countries were which movements in that song we’re playing in concert band? Seriously, they’ve got like a 60% failure rate. Observe:
The Introduction Thingy
This doesn’t count. It’s the introduction thingy.
The First Movement—Destination: France
Status: FAIL!
This song does not strike me remotely as French. France does not jive to the 3/2 time signature. France is waltz. France is stuff composed by Ben Charest for The Triplets of Belleville. This is French. Crappy, slow, “I’ve-dropped-le-baguette-in-le-Riviera-and-I’m-le-tired [obscure “The End of the World” reference]” is not French. Bulgarian at best. But not French.
The Second Movement—Destination: England
Status: WIN!
This song captures perfectly London on a cold, foggy morning. All we need is the ominous tolling of Big Ben in the background and I feel like I’m back in London being swarmed by pigeons. Success.
The Third Movement—Destination: Italy
Status: FAIL!
Italy? Italy?! No, no, no…three words: IRISH, DRINKING, and SONG. Further evidence that this should be a drinking song is produced in the 40 measure-long rests that are in place as to allow the clarinet sections to go to the pub before continuing with their parts.
The Fourth Movement—Destination: Spain
Status: FAIL!
Things conjured up in my mind when I think of Spain: castanets, running with the bulls, Ernest Hemingway, “Toro!”, and…well yeah, that’s about it. Nowhere does this list say anything about “depressing, funeral-esque music.” We decided the song was after a fatal goring during a running of the bulls, and we were mourning.
Still…where are the castanets, freaking people?!
The Fifth Movement—Destination: Germany
Status: WIN!
*singing along with the 2nd clarinet part* “AH! YES! I’m a German male!” (more lyrics with which to annoy Torrey to come).
This is a mighty powerhouse of a movement. The Germans would approve.
Yeah, that’s all I’ve got for today.
Silly Rabbit…Trix are for Magicians
Haha, ohhhhhhh…my titles kill me.
Now to the blog:
YES! My statistics test has been moved back to next Friday. I’m frightened. I’ve never taken a 400-level statistics class.
On another note…
I feel the need to poke fun at emos. Thus, I dub next week “Claudia Blogs Like an Emo Week”, starting on Monday. Why? Because I feel a blog-esque lampoon of the stereotypical emo blog is needed. And I think it would be hilarious if I did it, because…well, I don’t know. But it will be.
Onward to year 20!
Bless the Gods of Academia!
If, that is, there are such gods to be blessed.
Either way, I’m very happy that we got a snow day today. Why, you ask? Statistics homework. I’d done it all, of course, but I felt the need to redo it all again in preparation for the test on Monday.
I’m just that obsessive.
And I spent the whole day listening to disco music. Thank you, iTunes radio.
Good, productive day. Couldn’t ask for more.
Oh wait, except for this:
Blog 633: Titles are for the WEAK!
Ah, what a good day it has been (okay, well most of it)! I shall display it for you in…*gasp!* list form!
Today in Human Sexuality…
We spoke of female anatomy and the fact that I’m the only (admitting) virgin in the class. And no, I was not ashamed to admit it.
Today in Statistical Analysis:
I felt extremely nauseous the entire time. I think it was because I might have drank expired milk last night (because of my olfactory deficiency, it’s been proven time and time again that I can’t tell when milk is expired by taste only…I have to have someone else taste it when it’s iffy). Last night, I did not have anyone else to test it, so I decided to risk it. Bad plan.
Today in Sample Survey Methods:
I got a 34/35 on my first homework. And considering that the mean score was in the mid-twenties, I’m pretty happy about that.
Today in Developmental Psychology:
I bored a nice young woman to death with my discussions of how the SAT only correlates .35 with college performance and my plans to change that fact.
Today in Psychology of Emotion:
Sean debated the similarity between the emotions schadenfreude and malice to no avail., and we were on the verge of a psychological breakthrough regarding emotions, but class ended, so we never got there.
Today In Between Psychology of Emotion and DS I/O Research:
OMG!
Today in DS I/O Research:
We get to mess with SPSS. I am excited. I love ANOVAs and t-tests.
Hooray!
Status Upgrade!
I now have the official title of “researcher” on Sona Systems (the psychology experiment sign-up system for psychology majors/minors and communication studies people). This is for my 499 I/O research class. So far, I get to code data (which is freaking awesome, in my opinion) and sit around for two hours a week and log psych students onto the computers to do experiment credits and subsequently give them said credits.
I’m freaking excited. Plus, if we do further research, it could possibly get published in the future!
Hurrah!
Blog 620: Another Daily Log of Claudia’s Life Happenings (only 380 more to go until 1,000!)
Day two!
Introduction to Symbolic Logic: The first thing the professor says is, “welcome to symbolic logic. This class will be a lot like a math class.” Grr. I have a feeling this will be a difficult class. Why is it, in my experience, that 200-level classes are the toughest?
Concert Band: Hurrah! A class with people I know (even though you’re both in the back)! Torrey is switching me to clarinet, because all the other clarinetists from last year’s concert band died of the plague (I’m assuming) and I’m apparently the only one in the band who knows clarinet who is willing to switch instruments. Hurrah. Oh, well. I haven’t gotten to be loud and obnoxious on the clarinet in a concert band setting since junior year of high school.
History of Modern Philosophy: I love Joseph Cannon! I’m excited greatly for this class. The only downside is the fact that we’re only going up to Kant. But it’s all good.
Tonight consisted of: homework, dinking around on eBay for hours on end, working on my MFAW Flash (that’s “Millard Fillmore Appreciation Week, by the way), and making and subsequently drinking Nesquik chocolate milk. Yum.
Fillmore Fact:
“Econometrics: on average, people spend money” (thanks for the quote, Sean)
Holy crap, new semester! Here we go with my obligatory rundown of today’s classes:
Human Sexuality: oh man, is this gonna be a fun class. We get in there and he’s all “bring porno to class, we’ll watch it!” What a wonderful way to begin the semester and every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until May. The downside, though, is that our grades ride on only 100 points from two tests. Scary.
Statistical Analysis: I don’t think this is going to be the nightmare I thought it would be. However, I got my first droning professor of my college career. That’s going to be fun at 9:30 in the morning. But oh well—the tests are open book and open note!
Sample Survey Methods: I don’t think this one’ll be too bad, either. We’ll see.
Developmental Psychology: Hooray! I like Welch. I naturally study and absorb the same material she tests over, so it’s good.
Psychology of Emotion: Hooray! I have this class with Sean! And Welch teaches it, so it’s good. Plus, she says the tests are easy.
Well, it doesn’t sound like the tortuous 25 credits of death as I was expecting it would (at least today’s not—we’re not through tomorrow yet), so I’m pretty content.
Onward to Thursday!
Fillmore Fact: Did you know that it was under Millard Fillmore that California was admitted as a free state? Very cool, M. F., very cool.
Oh, and also…
First cartoon of the new semester. Concept thought up in Stats 401 (we weren’t talking about diagrams at all).
Heh. I’m awesome.
Dear University of Idaho:
I think I should send this to the president of the University. I think it makes reasonable demands (except possibly for number 5). Humorous parts that would not be included in the actual letter are in italics.
This is a list compiled by a member of your Student Body who, upon hearing faculty, staff, and other students complain about the University, and being fed up herself, decided to create this petition in hopes you will listen to the pleas of your employees and students. Thank you.
Declaration of New Organization and Order
and
Calling of Attention to Major and Minor Inconveniences
We the Associated Students and General Employees of the University of Idaho petition the University to:
01. Create a uniform template to which all department websites must adhere.
We declare that there should be a sense of uniformity to the department websites to a) lessen confusion over hard to navigate and confusing web pages, b) create for each department a resource to which students can turn to grow informed of each department’s specific requirements and general goals, and c) allow for a thorough covering of all topics a department website should cover.
Said topics should include but are not limited to:
a) What programs the department offers (be they Bachelor’s, Master’s, minors, etc.)
b) Links to each program’s specific website, which should all also be uniform in nature
c) The email addresses of the important figures in the departments
d) The general department requirements
e) Information about the faculty and staff employed in the department
f) A list of courses offered
02. Offer, if there is offered a minor and a Master’s and/or a PhD program in a specific discipline, the Bachelor’s program as well.
We declare that if further education degrees at and above a Master’s degree are offered in a specific discipline, the Bachelor’s degree should be offered as well, to those seeking either more than a minor or those looking to go straight through a program at the University.
03. Have the University Bookstore order enough books for the classes offered.
We declare that the University Bookstore should order at minimum as many books per class as the maximum number of students in the class. Having students left without books on the first day of classes due to the fact that the bookstore was “out” is unacceptable.
If, however, this is not possible for some reason, we declare that students seeking books that the University Bookstore is currently out of should be put on a mailing list by the bookstore, through which they will be immediately notified when the shipment of books arrives, thus preventing multiple inconvenient trips to the bookstore to check whether or not the books have arrived (or, at the very least, keep the University Bookstore website’s textbook stock information up to date).
04. Fix the Brink Hall situation
And by “fix the Brink Hall situation” I mean either,
a) move all the offices out of the building and just abandon it;
b) knock the damn thing down; or
c) equip all students with handheld GPS devices, as nearly 2/3 of students who enter Brink hall are either never found, are found but are lying in a fetal position after dying from thirst/hunger/suicide from not being able to find the exit, or finally get free after wandering around aimlessly for at least half an hour before ending up where they were supposed to be by accident and are told by a Brink resident where the secret “open sesame” door is to get back out.
05. Offer employees free and total access to the University of Idaho Recreation Center.
We declare that all full-time employees should receive free and total access at all times of business to the Recreation Center. Both the University and the individual employees themselves would reap the benefits of accessible exercise opportunities.
06. Provide every student and professor with a map of the TLC.
We declare that the layout of the TLC warrants the expense of printing thousands of maps for the teaching community and the student body. Both students and professors alike would benefit from and appreciate a map of the building, and it would help to lessen anxieties about finding classes on the first day of the semester. Failing this, just go find the M. C. Escher-turned-architect who designed the building and beat the hell out of him for us.
07. Cease selling apparel at the University Bookstore that promotes drinking.
We declare that the apparel promoting drinking and poor drinking habits (such as the “I’m a Vandal, Beer Me!” apparel) should not be endorsed and sold by the University Bookstore. While we appreciate the liberal attitudes the University often attempts to adopt, we feel that this apparel promotes poor drinking habits and therefore feel it is not in the best interests of the University to make light of, encourage, or profit from the exploitation of poor college drinking habits.
08. Put up the correct spring and fall schedules on the Class Schedules website.
We declare that the Registrar’s office should be organized enough to list the correct semester and the correct classes for that semester on the Class Schedules website. It is unacceptable to encourage students to plan their schedules off of this website and then to change it so close to actual registration due to such a glaring error such as putting up the last spring semester’s schedule instead of the current one.
09. Put scales in the locker rooms at the Rec Center.
Seriously, just buy two freaking scales and throw ’em in the locker rooms. People will be happy.
10. Supply all dormitories and each wing of Wallace with bins for recycling.
We declare that the University of Idaho should take steps to promote recycling by implementing “recycling centers” in all of the dorms. While we recognized that the University is already making an effort to increase campus recycling, we think the effort should extend into the dorms, as we know of many students who hoard their recycling in their rooms only to have nowhere convenient to drop it off. We would be happy to further discuss the logistics of this operation in further detail with whomever you deem in charge of the plan.
Ha.
In much, much lighter news,
HAPPY MILLARD FILLMORE APPRECIATION WEEK!!
And more so,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MILLARD FILLMORE!!
I shall now commence with the run of Fillmore Facts, following last year’s success (oh, and don’t worry. I’m totally making a Flash.)
Fillmore Fact: Millard had the highest number of votes that has ever been accrued by any third party candidate (both prior and since) when he ran in the 1856 election.
Stay tuned for more!
OH THANK GOD.
I seriously don’t know how or why the fates conspired in my favor in terms of math, but I’ve just gotten all my grades in and I’ve maintained my 4.0! YAY!
I am very, very happy and relieved right now.
I will not rest until I know I’ve maintained my 4.0
I’m too nervous to blog today.
Grades are slowly trickling in and math, I’m assuming, will be the very last.
Aw…
And just like that, the highlight of my undergraduate came to a close at abruptly 10:49 this morning. That’s right: I took my final in Tests and Measurements and walked out the door, never to see that wonderful class again.
It’s the saddest day of my life right now.
Haha, these are great
I have recently been made aware of this:
But why wasn’t I ever told of these?!
I am now amused.
Good memories. Good memories.
And Matt, I can’t tell if you’re amused or disturbed during that last one.
“Have a kitty!”
They approved my credits!!
Yay! I’m now up to my max of 25 for next semester.
Oh! Question: should I make a website for myself where I can put up all my crappy funny comics? Opinions are good.
Why are my blogs so short this week?
Stop. Schedule time.
Look at the symmetry. Just look at it. Isn’t that just the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
Yeah, even with the U of I’s crappy last-minute scheduling, I pulled this beautiful schedule. Hooray.
BIG sigh of relief
Ahem.
1½-year anniversary of my blogs today.
Be proud (or scared, one of the two).
Well, if September was the test of my emotional strength, October was the test of my mental and intellectual endurance. Every week had at least one test and one major project due; two weeks had two tests on the same day or two tests right after one another.
But I survived, with my 4.0 still intact (as of right now, with all my tests and projects graded and returned).
Do your worst, November!
They do this to me on purpose, I swear
*insert loud, frustrated, utterly-surprised-at-incompetence screams here*
This freaking university. I am often surprised by their lack of competence, but today’s adventures took the cake.
I, being who I am, constantly check the class schedules on a daily basis to make sure nothing’s changed and that everything is still go for my schedule next semester. Up until this point, nothing has been dramatically changed on me. Note the “up until this point.”
So today, I nonchalantly check the class schedules during my little break between geography and philosophy, as I always do. But today, I noticed there was a difference—every single philosophy class’s times and days were switched around. Confused, I refreshed the page several times to make sure there wasn’t mistake. There wasn’t—the philosophy schedule had completely changed. Frantically, I check to see where these new time slots fit in with my previously secure schedule.
Now let’s pause here and reason for a moment. Suppose you’re head of the registrar’s office at a university and are in charge of scheduling time slots for classes. It would make sense, don’t you think, to schedule classes that may conflict for people who have double majors at different times than each other, right? An example of this would be people majoring in, say, microbiology and regular biology. So it would make sense, wouldn’t you say, to schedule psychology and philosophy classes, with a double major of psychology and philosophy being rather common, at different times, correct?
Apparently, this did not occur to whoever designed the new philosophy schedule. The two philosophy classes required for the minor (and thus the major) are scheduled at the exact same time as two psychology classes that are not offered at any other time. Brilliant move, U of I. Brilliant move. What also changed is the statistics schedule, but luckily, this changed for the better. At least, for the moment.
After doing some investigating, I discovered that this genius revision of the schedule so close to registration was due to the rather large mistake by the registrar’s office of putting up last spring’s schedule instead of the new one and assuming that all the departments would realize this and adjust—in due time, before the schedule became available to students—their classes accordingly.
No.
So after rambling on for about four too many paragraphs, the short message is this: recheck your schedules if you’ve already got them charted out, and don’t freaking trust this university.
That is all. I am angry.
Ah, to be away from Idaho…
New goals, people!
I have discovered that it is possible for me to get all my needed credits and psychology courses for the psychology major next fall instead of the following spring. If I can do this, I can get my B.S. and graduate in December and then declare a “minor only” enrollment for spring to get my minors done. However, if I can do this, I may bypass spring semester here (we’re talking ’09, not next spring) and go on exchange somewhere!
That’s right, it’s my new mania. I want to go overseas for school.
Although I doubt classes will work out so that it would be to my advantage…I’ll probably end up here until spring ’09 and try to go overseas this coming summer.
Wouldn’t that rock? I think so.
Oh, and one of my fish died already. Why does everything I love die?! WHYYYYYYY?!
Eigenblogger 