Schedule-riffic!
All right then, people. I have my spring ’08 schedule all planned out already, and assuming I don’t find any better alternatives or my advisor advises me otherwise, this is how it’s going down next January-May:
MWF:
9:30-10:20—Statistical Analysis (Stat 401)
11:20-12:20—Developmental Psychology (Psyc 305)
12:30-1:20—Psychology of Emotion (Psyc 456)
1:30-2:20—Sample Survey Methods (Stat 422)
TR:
9:30-10:45—History of Modern Psychology (Phil 321)
11:00-12:15—Introduction to Symbolic Logic (Phil 202)
12:30-1:45—Concert Band (MusA 321)
3:30-4:45—Sensation and Perception (Psyc 444)
What fun! And I’ll probably add a directed study in there, too.
I never thought I’d see the word “fuzzification” used in a published scientific journal
I hate Signal Detection Theory and it hates me!
I seriously have nothing to say today. Worked on my psychology assignment. Read the word “fuzzification” in a published, peer-reviewed journal. Had a good laugh. Worried about my tests on Thursday.
Blah! Forgive this boring blog. They’ve been generally good lately, though, right?
Oh yay!
Holycrapholycrapholycrapholycrap, guess what?!
The spring ’08 schedule is up on the Registrar page! And you know what that means…
Obsessive planning!
This is what I’ve been looking forward to since I got this semester’s plan all figured out (what was that, March?). I love planning. Love it, love it, love it.
Ooh! And I got some new clothes for Claude: jeans (that fit—aren’t too long or too big around the waist, what an accomplishment!), a new shirt, and a coat/hoodie thingy. And a necklace. Hooray! He’s really hot.
(holycrapspringscheduleyay!)
Love, thy name is z-score
Now I’m not one to cuss much, but goddamn FUCK I love my Tests and Measurements class!!
I know I’ve blogged about this like five times, but I’m so freaking excited about it! I have found my true calling in life. If people are meant to have a sole purpose, I’m 99.99999% sure mine is to be a psychometrician and to make my change in the world through that. It’s a glorious thing to know something with such certainty.
As willing as I am to work my butt off for every single class I have, I’m 500% more willing to work for Tests and Measurements.
More determined than ever. Watch the hell out.
BUT…
Here’s the thing. I think I’ve discovered another very strong passion of mine—philosophy. I’ve never used to like philosophy; it was the one thing I wanted to stay away from. But thanks to my Literature of Western Civilization II class last semester, I’ve discovered the wonderful world of the ancient thinkers. And the addition of my glorious History of Ancient/Medieval Philosophy class this semester makes me consider more than I probably should be considering at this point switching out my minors for a major in philosophy (plus a few classes in the Greek language). But I won’t, because that would be impractical.
Maybe I’ll get a second Bachelor’s in philosophy while working for my Master’s and PhD at whatever grad school I happen to go to.
And I’ve decided that if for some strange reason my getting out of here in three years is not possible (no idea why that would be, considering I could get my requirements for my Bachelor’s done by next semester), I’m saying “screw it” and getting a triple major in Psychology, Philosophy, and Statistics.
That’s right, I’m either in here for a short while or in here for a very long while
I’m probably boring you now.
…I need help, don’t I?
UPDATE: there are weirdoes out there like me! And they’re on Facebook!
This just in: Philosophy is slowly becoming the next best thing after Tests and Measurements!
You know what I want?
Yeah, neither do I.
But today I worked on scheduling out the rest of my time here at the U of I, and I must say it cheered me up quite a bit. So did going to the library this afternoon and working on reliability coefficients for my Tests and Measurements class. And this was for made-up data; I can’t wait to see how excited I am when I start doing this for my own data.
Planning for school.
Coefficient alphas.
Joy? Is it there?
I’m working on it.
Math, you’re deriving me crazy!
How many times have I used that joke?
Okay people, I’ve got another school-related question for you. As you already know, I’ve got my three minors: statistics, philosophy, and writing. Statistics and philosophy are essential—they’re highly recommended by the grad school I want to go to. Writing, on the other hand, is an “optional” one that I’m doing just because. So I’m wondering whether or not I should stop pursuing it. I’m thinking this a) because if I go for it, I’m going to have to take eight classes per semester (AT LEAST 21 credits, cause one of those classes will be a lower-credit music class) and b) I want to take Latin or some other equally awesome random classes. If I have a writing minor, I won’t have time to take anything else.
And also—and I’m a little ashamed of this—I want to have a chance to be able to drop math this semester if I need to. I just don’t know if I’m ready for another math class that’s not set up in the super-easy fashion of Polya. I’ll have to read up a bit first (but dropping is a last resort!).
I hate these kinds of things. And yes, I know minors don’t matter at all, really, once I get into grad school. That’s one of the things pushing me towards cancelling writing.
The day that Camus backed into a sumac was the day the palindrome was born!
Ha, well, I was so enthralled with the goings on of yesterday’s gaming fun, I forgot to do my little rundown on my classes of the day! So here they are.
My opinions on the new ones:
–Introduction to Research in the Behavioral Sciences (Psychology 218): holy crap. A whole class on writing research papers. Am I in heaven?
–Tests and Measurements (Psychology 430): I’ll be tested on tests. How grand. I also find it funny that I almost typed “testes and measurements.” Shows you where my mind is.
–Social Psychology (Psychology 320): I wasn’t looking forward to this. But now I am. Sounds fun!
Good semester.
Ronald Reagan was a mean child, always destroying the walls of his playmates’ Lego creations
Well, here we go again! I don’t know whether to jump for joy or skip for sadness. The line-up for today was:
–Survey of Calculus (Math 160): I have a message for you, Mr. Math 160…you will not ruin my 4.0! YOU will be the failure, not I! Not I! BWA HA HA! Kill me.
–Physical Geography (Geography 100): hopefully this will be fun. I like geo-fun.
–History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Philosophy 320): Hooray! I get to just sit and ponder the ancient thinkers for 50 minutes and get credit for it! Bring it, Thales, bring it!
–Marching Band: stupid ½ squad. But good otherwise.
–Physical Geography Lab (Geography 100L): no opinion. Didn’t have it yet.
I can’t tell if philosophy is going to be difficult or not. I also can’t tell if my squad will be the death of me.
But I can tell one thing…
…Millard Fillmore is the MAN!
Freedom!
Ah, so I’m finally done with my directed study, meaning that I’m finally done with classes for the summer. And that’s, what, two weeks before classes start? Win.
I know all you marching band geeks are ready for band camp to start. How many of you are absolutely desperate for actual classes to start? Because I am.
Learning makes me happy.
I can be quite a dapper young man when I want to be, you know?
Okay, here’s what I don’t get: why am I getting crap for the way I’m approaching my education?
Let me clarify. My goals for my college education include: getting a 4.0, getting a bachelor’s in science, and getting three minors, all in three years. I have had several conversations with several different people about this, and every single one of their reactions were some form of this: “Why don’t you have some fun? What do you think all this stress is going to get you anyway? There’s more to life than grades, you know.”
Yes, I know. I’m aware that there’s more to the college experience than studying for tests and writing papers. I know that once school is over, no one is going to care whether I got a 4.0 or not. I know that there is much more to life than getting good grades, and I know, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not going to matter if I get three minors or if I graduate in three years. These kinds of things are not going to majorly affect my life later on (most likely).
But I’m also aware that it’s rather stupid to judge people based on what they do with their education. And I definitely know that you are in no position to judge me based on my decisions.
However, because nobody really seems to see this from my point of view, I’m going to explain myself here. The goals I am setting in terms of my education are goals myself and myself only. They aren’t for social status, good job standing, or monetary gain later in life. I’m trying to graduate in three years simply because it’s a goal I’ve set for myself so that later when I look back on my life I can say, “hey, I met my goal.”
I know that there are other activities involved in college—parties, social stuff, etc. I get most of my enjoyment from working on school stuff, which is basically why I do it and why I’m taking a lot of credits. That’s something I enjoy. I don’t know how to explain it any better.
Most importantly, though, I don’t think it’s right to judge me on these decisions. I don’t judge others for these things. If someone doesn’t feel like college is right for them, then that’s fine. I won’t judge them any differently than someone who’s going to Harvard. It may sound ridiculous that I’m mentioning these things, but I’ve gotten a couple accusations of being “superior” to others and I just want everyone to know that I do not think that way at all. Period.
So that’s about it. Just a little rant I had to get out of the way.
Waiter! There’s an Intergalactic Star Cruiser in my Bran Muffin!
Hooray!
4.0!
I’m a happy camper. Now all I have to do is pull it off four more times.
Short blog. I’m bored and tired and I have school tomorrow.
Günter! Fetch the dry cleaner!
It’s summer school time tomorrow! Why, you ask? Because of this:
CURRENT AMOUNT OF CREDITS: 52
CREDITS NEEDED FOR JUNIOR STATUS: 58
CREDITS TAKING DURING SUMMER: 6
I just hope my grades hold up from last semester. I’m still waiting for 3 classes…I’ll keep you all (even though none of you care) posted!
This blog = short because I’m working on stuff for tomorrow’s.
Waiter! There’s a Leper in my Ant Colony!
Why hello again! We’ve been doing this little back-and-forth for quite some time now, haven’t we (assuming this isn’t the first time you’ve read my blog)? Anyway, I’ve decided to give you all a little list of what college has really taught me. It’s short. That should tell you something right there.
What College Has Taught Me:
1. How to make normal phone calls
Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, it’s true. Before college I always used to have to write down everything I had to say before picking up a phone to make a call. I mean literally I would write down every word to say to every question I could think of that they would ask during a conversation (luckily I was never caught off-guard!). College, however, made me make several impromptu phone calls over the months and gradually I’ve gotten better. I only now need to write down some stuff. So if I ever call you/leave a message and my voice sounds shaky, I’m not crying (surprisingly) I’m just nervous.
2. The knee bone is connected to the brain bone
I swear, every time I hurt my knee within a relatively short time before a test (yes, this happened more than once) I did very well on said test. It’s uncanny. I’m writing a book.
3. My play-writing style is like that of Chekov crossed with Mad TV
Thank you theatre class for putting on my (crappy) play!
4. My short story-writing style is like that of Camus
Or, in my own words, “a schizophrenic on crack” (no offense to Camus—I just think that more accurately describes how I write)
5. Reading for pleasure is about as good as it gets
I knew this already; the fact that I wasn’t able to do so for nine months just confirmed it.
6. Marching band people are the best people in the world
Seriously. Matt, Maggie, Beau, all of you—you’re awesome.
7. Seven hours straight in the Ag Sci computer lab will mess with your head.
Dear god, the chairs revolted against my dictatorship! What more proof do you need?!
8. Seven hours straight of studying for four tests will result in this.
9. I have improved my time-wasting efficiency 250%!
Woo! I can now get more done while wasting time and yet still have more stuff to do the next day when I’m wasting time again!
10. To become obsessed with Millard Fillmore is to come one step closer to utter happiness
This isn’t directly related to college, but honestly, half this list is me just rambling anyway.
Things I already knew that were further affirmed by college life:
~group work sucks
~the U of I is incompetent
~incompetence sucks
~math is POINTLESS!
~I would rather gouge out my eyeballs and sell them as bouncy balls to young children on the streets than do any more math
~I would rather perform my own tonsillectomy and sell my excavated tonsils as decorative mistletoe accessories than do any more math
~I hate math (have I mentioned this?)
~band rocks
~I’m strange
The good, the bad, and the day-long visits to the library
So I’m writing this in the library computer lab, where I’ve been sitting for the past six hours working on various projects for school that I probably should have started back in March. I can’t pull an “Ag Sci” here because there are people everywhere, and even if I did, they’d probably kick me out because I’d disrupt the mellowness that is the quiet yet constant background buzz of about twelve iPod headphones cranked up too loud in the immediate vicinity around me.
Ah, college.
I’m sitting here whispering in my head, “just two more years…just two more years…just two more years…”
Yeah, this is a boring blog.
Maxed out! No limits! Reaching for the horizon! Putting the Silly Putty on the radiator!
Woo! I registered tonight! Here we go with my schedule for next fall:
22 credits.
7 classes.
1 semester.
No insanity limit.
Blog 334: in which the honors society gets it
I have a bone to pick with the U of I Honors Society. A big bone. And it’s not sexual.
So here’s a criterion for staying in the Honors Society once you’re admitted: you must take at least one honors class every other semester. No big deal, right? I mean, what are the odds of not finding an honors class that pertains to either my major or one of my three minors?
Well apparently, these odds are pretty damn big. There’s not a single honors class in any of my fields—that’s FOUR SEPARATE FIELDS—and I find that ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. I find the idea of one honors class per year very reasonable, mind you. Where the reason flies out of the window, though, lies in the fact that there are only, say, six honors classes in total offered every semester. Two of these are 101 classes, meaning that, for people like me, they’ve either been taken or would be a total waste of time. The rest are in microbiology and/or math or they’re upper division courses that, apparently, can’t be taken by freshmen and sophomores.
Please. Come on, U of I. These are ridiculous restrictions for some of us (specifically, those of us who put our major’s priorities over non-related dribble that is needed to stay in an honor’s society).
Basically, it’s either get out in three years or stay in the honors society.
I think you know what I pick.
So unless my minors or my circumstances change, I’ll be “kicked out” of the U of I Honors Society by next fall.
Remind me again why I hate group work? Oh yeah. People suck.
Group work is inefficient, boring, irritating, and utterly pointless. Especially when one is forced into a group of pseudo intellectuals and forced to sit and seethe in anger as they get absolutely nothing done. These are people who can easily rattle off dozens of French phrases and draw comparisons between Gandhi and Kafka but who are about as efficient as a sandpaper sled.
They think they’re so far beyond the classes they’re taking that they can just blow off the review questions and sail by with a 150% in the class. Wrong, you morons. You can spout French proverbs all you want, my friends, but will that help you pass a test in English? Obviously not, considering all three of you failed to get A’s on your last tests.
What’s worse is the fact that they look down upon people who have not been exposed to the things they have and therefore don’t know anything about them. Excuse me if Moscow’s public education is not the same as southern California’s, or wherever you prissy rich jackasses are from. If you’re so far above the rest of us, why are you even in college at all? Why can’t you just walk into the Dean’s office and pick up that PhD now? Oh, wait, I know why—you have to actually do WORK to get it!
Let me tell you something—it doesn’t matter if you know French, understand quantum physics, or know your wine. It is the understanding of new knowledge and material pertaining to the class you’re in that makes you smart, not the fact that you can list off all the Presidents and their wives or can recite the Periodic Table as if you had it in front of you. Be efficient. Be productive. Stay on the subject. Don’t apply crap that is not relevant.
And stop looking down on others who may not have had your rich-ass opportunities. Not everyone can afford private tutoring or have parents that will pay off the teachers to get their kids through 8th grade English.
Wait, did I write that last part down?
Ra-Ra-Rousseau!
Well, we’re back at the soul-sucking hellhole of college again. I really don’t like it here. Anyway, at least I owned my Core, English 258, and biology tests. Anything to get out faster.
Quick little blog here.
A collage of colleges
Dangit, I’m never going to get off the west coast! And I’m going to be up to my eyeballs in a $200,000 debt (optimistically) by the time I’m 24. At least if I go to the top school in terms of a psychology department.
So I did a little research today (I’ll probably do more later) and came across a list of schools ranked by their psychology Ph.D. programs. Here are the top contenders (at least according to one list):
1. Stanford
2. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
3. Harvard University
So I went to the Stanford website today and checked out the tuition. I saw the number $11,000 (rounded, of course) and I thought, “oh, that’s not TOO terribly bad.” And then I noticed that they do their thing in QUARTERS, meaning not $22,000 a year but $44,000 a year. Frick. And I don’t think I can get my Ph.D. in a year.
Ah…I’m screwed.
And don’t even ask me about Michigan or Harvard’s tuitions.
Thog! Mind mammoth! It bite hard!
So we had a fun little thing to do in my fiction class today where we had to tell one the stories in our book as if it took place in a different setting. I thought it would be rather fun to do Carver’s “Cathedral” with cavemen (“What a cathedral? Mmm, Thog not know,” etc.). It was rather funny.
Yeah. That’s all I got today.
[subject]
Bwahahaha! It’s time to change my plans again! So I figured out that getting a major and three minors will be faster than getting two majors, so here’s my new plan:
I’m sticking with my psychology major, cause I love, it, and switching my English major to an English minor while adding a philosophy minor and a history minor.
Yeah.
This is my new plan and I’m sticking with it. If I keep up this pace, I’ll be out of here in three years with a bachelor’s in psychology and three minors, and I think that’s pretty damn good.
Ambitious or insane? You be the judge.
No, wait.
I’ll be the judge.
You just sit there and look pretty.
Band + sexual-based songs = fun
Huttah! He-brides! This is what my Tuesdays and Thursdays will consist of for about a month:
I. He-bride pirates shouting “scurvy!” and “arrrrrr!” and “throw me my sexin’ pants, me bucko!”
II. He-bride lovers running in slow motion towards each other because that’s what lovers do.
III. A completely non-sexual song about milking said he-brides.
IV. Something about the he-brides going to an isle. I’m still not quite sure about this one.
And so yeah. I love concert band.
I have plenty of class(es)!
Went to five of my six classes today (statistics has been pushed back until next Wednesday), and most of them seem pretty awesome. I’m going to love psychology, especially since we get to develop our own theory of personality (which I’ve already got mostly worked out–how sad is that?). Literature of Western Civilization (part 2!) is going to be rough, though. I’m scared. And biology. Don’t know how that’s going to turn out.
I haven’t used a smiley in awhile, have I?
Oh, crap! Almost forgot! Fillmore Fact™:
He had no formal education, he was a lawyer, and his nickname is the “American Louis Phillipe”…whoever that is.
Well, here we go again…
Crap, I’m nervous. Why does school make me so nervous? Especially the first day…we don’t ever do anything on the first day!
Gr!
Ulcers!
Vomiting!
This is not what I’d like to be doing right now!
FillmoreFact™:
He was the last of the Whigs! Holy crap, isn’t that historic? Also, here’s his very presidential-looking grave:
Where there’s smoke…there’s a campfire with roasting s’mores! HOLY CRAP, RUN!
NOOO! I got the Honors program thingy at the U of I chasing me! I hate that kind of crap. I do not want to be in the Honors program. The only reason I will join is if it is guaranteed that we can sign up at the same time as seniors (a point to be disregarded in another year for me, anyway).
I can’t really explain why I don’t want to join…I just don’t. But if it means I have a better chance get into the classes I want for the next year, then I suppose I can suffer. I won’t like these “required every-other-semester” honors classes, though. I’ll have trouble compacting my schedule around them.
Eigenblogger 