Study is difficult.

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Even with my tricks, studying is very hard because the material is exacting and wide ranging. I am not sure if I will get through it three times, if that is the goal. Twice might be more realistic, if perhaps even then a bit hopeful. Has anyone eaten a three pound steak in a half hour? Has anyone given three pints of blood in one sitting? Yes, it is not far from that. No exploding stomach or need for fluids, but the brain gets a bit cramped. Even with a whole week to study this much material, it would be just as difficult. I have until Friday morning. I did fiddle time away this weekend, though I suspect I needed the time off more than any study would have helped. I am very glad I do not have two tests to study at once and that I had a large separation between the tests.

Food has been great though. I am wearying of chicken, but it does the trick. Cold cuts get old very fast as well. And I think the pig feet buffet, along with the rest, has led to occasional heartburn. At least that is fixable, and quickly, with a little baking soda water mix. Then it is back to studying, eating, or napping. :p The furnace has stayed lit, except for that once. And I was able to relight it quickly enough. Two more days, and then I can rest a bit.

My mother called, wanting to know when I would be home. I told her I would like to take the weekend off and then drive home. I have ordered 2 lobster for New Years Eve, here, with my lady friend, so I will not be staying till then. My lady friend does not know this. She does not particularly like lobster, as the thing scares her and the complication of extracting the meat is too daunting for her. I will do most of this for her, however, as she does love the meat itself. A week with my mother, for Christmas plus and minus a few days, and back to the cave to spiffy it up and prepare for another feast. The holidays should be enjoyable.

Oh, I wrote my physics professor and asked him about where to go from here regarding self study. He replied quickly and happily it seems, with some fine advice. He even asked if there are any particular areas so that he might be able to refine his suggestions even more. At this time, I think I will just go with his advice as it stands but ask if, in the future after studying the material he advised, that if I have a more specific area of interest, if he would mind if I emailed at that time. I was quite pleased to get the response. I can see from his class, and his advice, that he teaches and thinks much along the lines of how I suspect things should be taught and learned. I do like my other professor, and I think he is fair within the confines of the course.

I think engineering courses are disasters for conscious learning. They, I think, are meant to do three things. Keep the student from straying by almost making them hate certain subjects, teach subconsciously through a demand to integrate things unconsciously and be able to use that (or fail), and to strip away the fear of the unknown (or create such a fear of it that we are a bit crippled by it, or maybe both, again to keep us on course and out of side subjects). As for my part, I think engineering schools need to be a lot more up-front about their expectations and the fact that they mean to fail students. They need to explain that most subjects are not meant to be areas of interest or even learning, but merely things that must be done any way possible. In spite of what is suggested, cheating is a means that seems to be allowed, or as I see it. Being allowed powerful calculators, being told not to use them in certain ways, while having no checks on that, seems to indicate that cheating is a method. Not just in this class, but in others. If it did not affect the chance for advanced schooling, that would be fine, but as I see it, it does affect the outcome. Ok, that is my rant on engineering school. I will let it rest there, most likely forever. Who knows, maybe in my time, I will find a school I trust, a program in which I fit, and a culture around that which is tenable. But I am not holding my breath, at least until this spring… should I “decide” to take an unregulated swim again. :p

I am hoping, once classes are over, to begin trying to work out again. I will, of course, begin packing and sorting, throwing and giving away, in order to move in as easy a fashion as possible. My mother indicated she may visit for a week to help in this endeavor. I might have to see if I can get here up a time or two more, if just for a few weekends. I do not need her muscle, just the one between her ears, and her will. She is a force to be reckoned with, a force of nature. If she cannot bend metal, she can instill the fear of God in men so that we can. *laughs* No kidding there, if it is quite humorous, mostly. My lady friend might be cajoled into some help, especially since she will be profiting from this in the way of bookcases, a really nice folding main/side table, and other things. She is getting a computer too, a laptop, but that is a Christmas present so I will not hold that over her (unless she needs help getting going… techniphobes, arghhhh!).

That is life in a nutshell. Oh, wait. I have received my license to buy pretty much any gun, short of class C (is it). And, I have set up my account to buy that reloader. I will leave a message today for a call Friday afternoon (after the test) for the reloader. And I will begin finding LLCs (or whatever) for receiving ordered rifles and such and begin purchasing those that I have on my short list, perhaps a pistol too if the money is right. If nothing else, these will only increase in value when communism comes to town, since laws are not being applied to the office of the presidency from the Supreme Jerks on down. So be it.