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| OMG! It's been another 2 months!
Well overall I've been quite busy with school. In the second round of midterms now.
First round:
ESE 211: 18/25 (avg 17)
ESE 231: 23/30 (no idea what the average was but 23/30 isn't bad)
ESE 306: 38/50 (avg of 41)
ESE 372: 68/100 (avg of 81)
AMS 261: 97/100 (avg of 87)
Not bad, but not great either..... ESPECIALLY the 372 midterm..... I was so shocked when i saw my grade...... Still, I just made stupid mistakes and should have easily gotten at least average..... Well, for 372 we have 3 midterms and a option final so I guess I'm taking the final and having the first midterm dropped.
Had my second 231 midterm Monday. I don't think I did as well..... But then again overall it was harder and no one left early really and it looked like most of the class was having trouble. Two midterms tomorrow, 306 and 372. Taking a break from studying now to xanga. I have lab in a bit anyways so now would be a good time to break and clear my head so I can concentrate on lab. I came into this week dreading the two midterms tomorrow but now I feel a bit better about them. For 372, the exam is only going as far as the DC analysis of transistor circuits and isn't covering the small signal section yet. So its based on the last two homeworks which I did fine on. Going to yesterday's lecture and seeing him review problems I'm sure I'll do fine. Its the clippers and clampers portion from the diode section that I'm a bit worried about. But if its nothing too complicated I should do okay on that too. 306 just seemed impossible but after todays recitation it really seems easy....Ting Luo is a great TA thats for sure.... I don't really understand all the theory but I can apply it well enough.
Stephen and I also started to collect birch sap. We went to ACE hardware last weekend and they actually had hand cranked drills! We bought one as well as 20' of vinyl .25" OD tubing and some brass connectors as a tap. Kinda funny too cause I expected the season to start around the beginning of March but one night we were in the forest and on one of the tress we marked with reflectors there was a HUGE dark spot on the bark. Closer inspection showed that it was sap! It was nice and clear too so I'm assuming the season just started. We both downed a bottle of 1.5L smart water since we needed containers to have the sap collect into. Last time Stephen went in he came out with 2L. We only tapped 3 trees the first time and only one had good flow. The largest tree we tapped figuring it would have the best flow and could let go of more of its sap without injury had almost nothing in the bottles..... But Stephen went and drilled the tree a bit deeper and now it has decent flow. I'm hoping to get at least 5 gallons. I figure we can get at least a gallon without injuring the trees and probably more from the larger tree. Well, I can't complain. Since I live so far away from the forest Stephen has been doing all the collecting lol. He even tried boiling some down to syrup last night. Worked out okay but I don't think he boiled it enough before taking it off the heat. He didn't even check for sheeting..... I'll give it a try this weekend when I head over to his place.
I also got a bunch of cool lighters from Leo when I went back home for spring break. An IMCO, another zippo, a cool Colibri of Japan that can't get blown out, and a pearl. I've always been jealous of him having the pearl cause it's just so cool!
Man, the weather has been so nice it just makes me want to go out and enjoy nature.... Sucks that instead of doing that I've just been in my room studying..... Looking froward to summer. Taking classes in summer session I but prob free the rest of the summer. Leo, Stephen and I will prob make a trip up to Bear Mountain to hike.
I also got an old Casio Pathfinder. Kickass.
Whats on the To Buy list now? Well I've shortened it plenty. An Alox Swiss Army Farmer was on there, but I just ordered a red Alox Farmer and an Alox Bantam a few hours ago. So now its a new fountain pen, a new watch (most likely a Seiko Black Monster), and then a small classic Sebenza.
Anyways, time a bit more of studying before lab. I'm gonna try to finish my study sheet for 306 before lab. Then I'll have a good 4 hours after lab to study. 2 hours to 306 and then 2 hours to 372. After the 306 midterm tomorrow I'll make my formula sheet for 372 and then take that exam. Next midterm won't be for another week and a half. YAY!
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| Wow. It's almost been two months!
Anyway, here I am at the end of the first week of school. So far it hasn't been too stressful. Then again, first weeks are always easier since there isn't any work due and recitations and labs are usually canceled. But still, so far everything is okay. Abhishek is in my ESE 211 (electronics lab) class so score! Another semester of having a good lab partner lol. ESE 231 (introduction to semiconductors) hasn't been as good though. The professor seems nice enough and very enthusiastic about the subject (I believe it's his field) but I find he goes through the material really quick. It's kinda like with Professor Chen. Talks and writes non-stop but at least Chen had really neat handwriting and didn't rush through nearly as much as Shterengas does. Worst part is that he doesn't put up notes online so its even harder to write them down and understand what he's saying since he has a thick russian accent (even worse than Donetski's). After the second lecture, my brain was practically fried and I felt like I was loosing concentration near the end of the lecture. Still, I guess with the topic anything Shterengas says in the lecture will basically be from the textbook. So far he's just going over some physics stuff so its not too bad yet. Calc III, I just don't know. The Professor is nice and kinda reminds me of Mr. Widom. But I guess I'm not use to his style of teaching yet. So far we've just done some simple multivariable equations and sketching. ESE 306 (random signals and systems) seems like a bitch. Going over probability stuff now. I think this might be the second hardest class I have this semester. And quizzes every recitation will be annoying, but I guess its good for me since it'll force me to keep up with the material. Finally theres ESE 372 (electrical circuits). I personally think that Kamoua is a good professor. Its just that the subject is hard in general. I thought Zemanian was a good professor too (albeit a hard one) but electrical circuits are never easy.
In other news, I got my Koster Bushcraft. LOVE IT! I've always loved the scandi grind and moras are okay but the materials that they are made from just aren't that good. I was going to get one of the scandis made in Finland and almost pulled the trigger on a Skookum from Rod Garcia but it was sooo pricy. It's like God answered my prayers and inspired Dan to make a mid tech run of the bushcrafts in 3V for such a cheap price. Like Stephen said, it's feels like I stole something it's so cheap lol.
Meanwhile, Rambo IV was not that good..... I think it's been downhill for the Rambo series since first blood..... I mean it seems like a lot of people liked it, but I think after the first one it just got too into killing and there really wasn't much of a plot..... Then again First Blood was based on a book so I guess producers had more to work with.
That's basically about it I guess. With 3 midterms for almost every class again After the first month it's gonna be extremely busy for me.....
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| I hate this weather..... This dark, gloomy, rainy weather. A few weeks ago it was so cold I ALMOST broke out the winter coat but now its nice and warm again and the fleece is warm enough. Ideally I get my handwarmer to work but I think I might get a few of the chemical handwarmers to throw into the bag just in case.
So anyways, no exams this week. First week since the end of September that I don't have an exam. Of course thats because finals start next week. Four finals, possible 5. Donetski said that anyone that failed the last exam would have to take the final because he simply can't pass anyone that can't design counters with various flip flops. I think I passed though. I mean in theory designing with flip flops is easy. Just get the state table from a state diagram and get the excitation values. Then use that to get K-maps and from the K maps you get the input equation for the flip flops. My synchronous binary multiplier didn't work last Thursday.... I don't feel too bad though. I mean the lab section before us only one group got their circuit to work. In my lab section basically no one had a working circuit and after 30 mins the only groups left were myself and Abhi and Frank with Chris. Hell, the only reason why Frank was still there was because I gave him my circuit diagram. I Abhi tried building the circuit on the CADET board via the circuit diagram and I built it on my breadboard via chip pinout. I took all 3.5 hours slowly building my circuit to make sure I didn't make any wiring mistakes. 15 mins into the next lab section (basically no one in that section had anything either so there was plenty of stations for us to stay late) Abhi and Frank kept on rushing me and so we stuck the inputs and outputs into my circuit and it didn't work! I debuged my circuit during the weekend and found that I was missing a wire..... So hopefully on Thursday it'll work fine. Obviously Donetski knew that most people wouldn't get the circuit because he gave us two weeks to do this lab and said that even if we didn't get a working circuit we would get partial credit for whatever we did as long as we explained what happened in the lab report.
So anyways, second range trip for the Rifle Club is this coming Friday and Saturday. I can't wait (or maybe I can since the sooner the range trip comes, the sooner finals come, but then the sooner winter break comes!). I'm determined to shoot much better than I did last time and I brought part of my dumbbell set with me to work out my forearms so they won't die after such a short time....
Played pool last Thursday with Jen. It was fun. She had to leave after an hour or so though but then Simon and Matt came down and we ended up playing 9 ball till midnight. I think I'm starting to get my stroke back though. Towards the end I was stroking nice and smoothly and making most of my shots and getting good position. I guess thats the bad thing about not having a textbook stroke and stuff. If I don't play seriously for a long time I just lose it and it takes a while before I can get it back...
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| Phew, another month has gone by yet again. So yea, happy late Thanksgiving!
Cooked a turkey yesterday. It came out great! I think the $10 probe thermometer is one of the best things to have in the kitchen. I mean really, no more guessing to see if meat is done. Just throw the turkey into the oven for 30 mins at 500° and then cover the white meat with a triangle shaped piece of aluminum foil and then cook at 350° until the white meat is at 161°. The turkey came out great and the breast meat was super juicy, not dry as hell like last year. I think I'll be doing the same thing for chicken since whenever my parents make chicken the breast meat is always like a desert.
On another topic, its almost December! For kids, that means Christmas. My dad emailed me before asking for my "wish list" but theres nothing I can tell my parents to get for me. I mean looking at what I want, its fairly expensive and useless in their eyes. So basically my real wish list involves me saving myself and then just buying the stuff myself. I mean really what I want now is knives and flashlights lol.
Knives:
Spyderco P'kal
Spyderco CalyIII (in either VG-10/G10 or ZDP/Carbon Fiber)
Spyderco Paramilitary
CR Sebenza
Kershaw Tanto Groove
Kershaw Leek (in damacus, S30V, or ZDP)
Bradley Alias II
Benchmade 42
Knifekits Typhoon
Dozier Arkansas Toothpick
Busse Badger Attack (gen 3)
Busse Game Warden
Utility HAK
Lights:
Fenix P2D-CE
McLux
CR2 Ion
Orb RAW NS
So yea, nothing really cheap there so bleg. More knives than lights though lol.
Hell the Koster Bushcraft would be on there too if I hadn't already ordered it for myself as a self Christmas present. Should be coming in perhaps a little after Christmas too (with the first batch in Dec. 20ish and me being in the middle of the run...)
I mean really, the Koster was such a great deal I just couldn't pass on it. I was going to get the Rod Garcia Skookum but that would have been like $240 ish for the one in 3V. The Koster will just be around like $130 for the 3V.
I believe that us knife nuts have a sickness. I may be speaking for myself, but I'm sure it applies to loads of people. I am constantly looking for the perfect knife. One that makes me say "this knife will do everything I want and I no longer need anymore." It has to have looks, feel good in the hands, and cut well. But then the problem is that there will probably never be a knife that does that. I mean when i got my BM551 I was quite content. The 440C gets sharp and I love the axis lock. But then really its kinda big and bulky in the pockets and not really PC since it flicks out so easily. Then I got a great deal on a Spyderco waved Delica. I love this knife. Its currently my EDC and its great. When I first held it in my hands it felt too small (compared to the BM551 handle) and now it feels great. Lock up is good and it comes out fast because of the wave. The VG-10 is a dream to sharpen and I love it. If it was flat ground then this thing would slice like a razor, even though its razor sharp as it is now. But then I sharpened Stephen's CalyIII and I love that now too! Feels great in the hands, looks really nice and its also in VG-10. Just as I figure that I'll save for one, I also notice the CalyIII in ZDP with carbon fiber handles. It looks even better and has an even more premium steel!! Of course throughout this whole time ever since I played around with Leo's Spyderco Paramilitary, I've always wanted one. Came close to buying one since some store was selling the black coated ones for $25 each and I called up Leo and we each ordered one. Unfortunately with credit card problems the order never went through and we basically lost on a great deal. Meanwhile, Stephen picked up like 4 of them and a few Manixs at $25 each, that bastard.....
So many people say the Chris Reeve Sebenza is the end all knife. Locks up like a vault, looks simple but elegant, and has Crucible S30V. The problem for me is the $330 price tag. I mean a lot of people got the Sebenza and just sold all their other knives because of how great it is. Yet I just cant find myself to do something like that. I mean if I ever lost a Sebenza I would be pissed off. Hell, what if someone stole it or the cops took it away? I haven't fondled one yet but I figure when I get back on campus I'll be able to play with Stephen's. I mean he loves the Sebenza now and plans to sell off some of his extra crap. Maybe I can pick up a paramilitary for cheap from him? lol. Sucks though since I know what he really paid for them and its just a plain rip off.....
But enough of that. Figure sometime in the future I'll get them myself.
So today was nice. Ended up going to midtown with Leo. Didn't really do much I guess. Art Browns is nice. I can see a lot of my money going into Noodlers ink in the near future..... Hell I would have bought a bottle of I wasn't too lazy to flush my Lami Safari. Also went to HooMoos Asli and I got myself a falafel sandwich and it was kickass. I wish there was falafel on campus but I guess at least we have gyros, albeit they aren't very good. It's okay. I'll probably convince Stephen to let me make some in his kitchen.
Now I'll end with some song lyrics. Man I love this song. I wish I could put it up on my xanga:
Future In My Hands- Rin Oikawa
Standing where I should be
Believing as I'm told to believe
Being who I should be
Doing what I should do
Did you hear what I said?
Did you get what I meant?
What you saw is an illusion
You're living in delusion
Going on and on I have the future in my hands
Getting loose from days I never could get over
Going on and on until I'm finally myself
Getting out of this dishonest world I never wanted
Now is the time
Now is the time
Ask me if you're anxious
I'll give you all the answers
Truth or dare - it's your choice
Your truth is what you wish for
Who am I to tell you that the future's in your hands?
Set me free from lies and cold deceptions, I'm so scared
Going on and on across this land, across the time
Going on to see, to feel, to breathe
I've always wanted
Sleepless nights I'm spending
Counting all the words that broke my heart
I'm leaving all my past here
Then I'll see the world for sure
Going on and on I have the future in my hands
Getting loose from days I never could get over
Going on and on until I'm finally myself
Getting out of this dishonest world I never wanted
Now is the time
Now is the time
Chase after time
Chase after time.
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| Happy Birthday Ruby!!
So far I've done fairly well on my midterms.
ESE 218: 34/50 avg 35
ESE 271: 50/100 avg 58.86 (although I'm sure the 6 people that got 100's messed up the true class average since I'm sure no one got a 0....)
ESE 305: 57/80 avg 55
AMS 361 7/10 avg 4.2
Another 305 midterm this Thursday and then my CSE 230 (intermediate programming in C and C++) is this Friday.
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