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I completed the homework to the best of my ability. If I made mistakes, they were not something an office hours visit might have helped, so I did not seek that. It was a good thing, too, probably, as I had a very difficult time getting out of bed this morning. I barely made it up in time to shower and go to class. Traffic was light if rather irksome, so I did make it well enough on time. The quiz beat me up pretty well though. We had a question from notes back on September 12th. Oddly, I had looked that over last night but not well enough for the process to be functional. The other two questions I should at least have gotten fairly well. At least I was there to take it, and with completed homework.
I thought I might take some time off. As I was doing my usual goofing, however, I decided to do more. So, I pulled out my notes from probability and statistics and began copying them. I have copied two days of notes so far. While copying them, I go ahead and do the problems myself, on a separate piece of paper if necessary (if I make a mistake, I re-write the copy, I am a bit of a stickler, so sometimes it is better to be safe than sorry). I suspect I will get through all of those notes before too long, then do the homework assignments from this most recent set of notes, and look over the quizzes if available. I will also be reading through what is coming up in physics. I will probably do the box example problems, kick some of the new formulas around, and play with some of it. I have a week (and a half if you count two weekends) to get my bearings. Sometimes my plans to study work, sometimes they do not. I will not be leaving until Tuesday and will only stay until Friday, so my visit should not interfere too much with my plans.
I am saddened that I will be leaving school. It is demanding, and when doing well, I generally enjoy that. I am usually frustrated with engineering classes as they honestly mean to make it so you cannot do well. Sometimes what would pass for a C is an A, but then again, sometimes an otherwise A is just a C. It depends on the professor, who else is in the class, and a few other variables. I wish I could say I believe the grading is absolutely even, but that I could not say. Between variances in style, requirements, partial points, or just not getting tests back in some classes, there is no way to know. A student could easily be failed out unfairly, and it probably does happen. As I said, how would I know? I do not think that is my problem at all, but when frustrated, it is an easy poison to grab. If I have an enemy, overt enemy, regarding school, I would say that is in the form of certain aspects of the V.A. They want to hang on to their gimps or something.
I may be looking at a newer model Xterra. Though the one I have is fine, I fear they will be ending production. Corporate planning can be highly impacted by temporary and intense situations, like the recent fuel debacle and credit crunch. I fear that those things may create a trend toward cars of little value, if they are cheap on gas. As well, with zero interest and the deals they are offering, I might actually step into a better deal than what I have. I will poke around, due to an invitation, but I am not holding my breath on that. If it costs a plug nickel, to be honest, I will not do the deal.
I would also like to begin packing things. I am, through time, cleaning out and disposing of stuff. The first order of clearing will certainly not be the last, there will probably end up being several evaluations. I plan on taking some of my weights to my Mom’s house while I am heading that way. There are a few other things which might find there way along with me as well. My vehicle is only rated at slightly over 900 pounds, interior, so I have to think about that as well. I am a bit worried about moving in with her. She seems a bit intent on money. I may, instead, just find a very inexpensive boarding house or even stay at the Y somewhere, taking only old clothes and little else, while I try to save, should she become too greedy or too demanding. I have a pretty good idea about what is fair and I have offered more than that. I hate that, but I am not going to pay her rent and utilities while I am there, especially knowing I will barely have a room. (I plan to buy her a laptop so she has no reason to enter my room… if this works out). I will find out more this visit. I will negotiate a very little, I really am not made to negotiate.
I think I will tinker a bit more on the machine and then do a page or two more of notes. Have a good night and weekend.
I missed where it is you're going to school, but my engineering education started at the nearby community college. The lower division university courses were designed to fail out a certain number of students, but the community college math and science was geared to actually making sure you learned the material. The instructors were dedicated educators, not resentful researchers forced to keep a teaching load and/or TA's with their own quirks and issues. And the coursework was fully transferable to the U when the time came.
ReplyDeleteIf you do decide to make another run at it, I highly recommend getting the calc/physics/chemistry out of the way at a community college and only transfer to a university engineering school once you've exhausted the resources of the CC.
Yes, I did actually look at that. And though I noted that the education was very good there, the work load is a bit over the top. Yes, I know, I can never be pleased! Actually, I really liked the engineering calculus III I took there, plus the professor actually spoke English (was American!). When I looked into physics... they were doing 2 or three heavy homeworks a week, plus extra credit (which, though you did not "HAVE" to do, since they counted toward your comparative grade, there really was no choice), and 4 or 5 tests. It was too much. Plus, I would have to drive an hour, round trip, on top of that, plus any other courses I take (and last year was brutal for driving).
ReplyDeleteI am finished with math, I only have another physics to take, eng. physics II, and I would also have to take an advanced economics (either to complete the course set I started, either macro or micro... the better one), to complete my outside engineering work.
My problem, though, is that all of this work is like this. Engineering courses, math, physics, chemistry... What they offer for engineers is just too damned smack in the face hard when I have a difficult time knowing if my meds will work, if the doctor will adjust the meds when there is a difficulty, and things like that. Every time I have run into trouble, the VA either didn't care or actively made the problem worse. As for the coursework, I understand, it is engineering, but nearly forcing fails is depressing.
It is amazing, when I have just a little medical help and some one I can trust, I do fairly well, even in the engineering stuff (if with C's and B's, max). For so long, I wondered if I could actually even do what I wanted given the chance. Well, I found that I can, and in spades. It is too bad I cannot trust to simply be allowed to do so, or be worked with a bit to get that, even to the point where my physical shape might be good enough that I could leave medicine behind.
That, actually, is the crux of the problem, trusting medical help. Though, the political move that just happened makes the prospect of work, thus the need for an education as well, irrelevant. The engineering school is already telling people to start looking for jobs as we end our sophomore year or begin our junior year. In other words, they are telling us jobs have become quite tight, and they say not to be so picky about wages and such... (I finally got into my college email, there was stuff like that plus a ton of pro-Obomber emails (which nothing I did seemed to be able to block) but not one McCain (or any other candidate) email).
Oops, just started ranting. Not quite awake yet, sorry.
If it's any consolation, the upper division work is not as brutal. They figure you've run the gauntlet by then and now it's just paint-by-numbers to graduation day.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I missed what branch of engineering you were/are pointing toward.
I would probably have been more suited to mechanical engineering by temperament, but civil engineering promised more steady employment so that's the direction I took. These slumps don't last forever, but it's a bummer to graduate into one. Still the demand for civil engineers is likely to be the highest of the lot, now and in the future when the economy picks up again (presuming we're not on the final downward spiral).
D.C.,
ReplyDeleteOh, electrical engineering is what my goal is. What is funny? I too, probably, have a more natural call to mechanical engineering. However, I felt the call to electrical.
The problem is not just the difficulty of the coursework, it is not being able to trust my medicine or doctors to help. I find it amazing what I can do with a little help, but when that help fails, it is hellish, truly. On the good side, when all fails, I no longer blame myself. I was even able to sort of hold on and seek real help this time. But it is just too much to risk again. My doctor did indicate this could fail at any moment. I will speak with him again Tuesday. I may ask about options, and whether he could or would work with me in the case of a failure.
I am not sure it will get easier though. Competition has become much tighter and the engineering schools have been set up differently, recently. I think they did away with the easing up. They want fewer engineers. Or at least that is what I am hearing.
However it ends, at least I did a few amazing things, even pushing to a natural A+ in engineering calculus II (if it about killed me, I got 280 out of 300 points, or so). :P And, I have seen some interesting math and science. Honestly, too, I have liked most of my professors. I think they are as trapped into these classes as we are sometimes. It has to be tough to push people past their breaking point and having a quarter or more of your class just quit while brutalizing those who remain, failing some larger than usual chunk of the remaining on top of it.