Thursday, September 23, 2004
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere...But not a drop to drink!
I can't write all that much tonight; tomorrow is my big day of classes - 7 hours worth. But I have an hour for lunch right in the middle so it shouldn't be too bad. At any rate, I need to not stay up too late tonight, especially because I didn't sleep too well last night. It was hot in my room, plus there was a group of people in the floor lounge until at least 1 in the morning playing every song imaginable from their cell phones. Yeah, quiet hours aren't closely observed around here. Our RA comes in a little after 10 (when quiet hours start) and tells everyone in the lounge that they either need to go into someone's room or down to the main lobby. Then she leaves. And of course, the people in the lounge don't move, or quiet down. I can get to sleep, but it's just a little more difficult. And when you pair it with the temperature of the room, its even tougher. I have some substantial adjusting to dorm-living to do...
I had a new class today (that is, one that I have not previously been to). It was my EE lab. I think I'm going to like EE; I walk into this classroom and it's filled with all these machines that do things like measure voltage and current and the like, and also ones that you can use to build circuits, and all this other exciting stuff. Exciting to me, anyway. But my professor, Jeff Gerfen, has me a little worried. We learned about Ohm's Law, a subject that I covered in Physics E&M last year. I knew what he was talking about (yay for "college prep" high school classes!). But perched on my stool in the back of the lab I couldn't help but think that if I hadn't previously learned that voltage = current x resistance, I wouldn't have understood a word of what he was talking about. His lecture was mildly sporadic, and he spent a lot of time on things that I felt weren't as important as some of the things he rushed through. I don't know...maybe it was fine. I'm just a little worried that when we get to the stuff that I don't already know Professor Gerfen won't be able to sufficiently explain it. We'll see, I guess...
That lab actually ended an hour or so before it was scheduled to, so I was a little before 2. So I went to the sandwich factory for a bite to eat. The line was about 10 people long, as opposed to the line of 50 or so that stretches out the door and into the University Union during the lunch rush. I had roast beef and swiss on a wheat roll, and it was pretty darned good. But the best part was when I went to pay for the meal, I had some cash left over. (When you use a meal credit instead of plus dollars, you get a "cash equivalency," i.e., the value of the food that you can buy with that one meal credit. If the credit is worth $8 and you spend $5, it still uses the entire credit. So when you're under, you grab everything within reach of the cashier to get your money's worth.) So I grabbed a couple of candy bars...and it's like getting them for free. And who doesn't like free stuff? I don't not like free stuff!
So that was what today was about. Fairly low-key. I was able to go to the gym...that's one good thing about my schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays start late, so I can do a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday gym schedule while always going in the mornings. I still need to adjust to the gym here. I'm used to the machines back at home. I wish Dad or Dave were here to get me started on a new program with the machines I have available to me here. I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later.
Well, good night for now. I hope the RB football game went well. And by football game, I mean halftime show. (Because we all know it's mostly about the band anyway.) And on that note (Get it? Note! Ha ha! Like musical notes? Come on, it's funny!) I'll sign off.
Talk to you all soon,
Josh
mood: sleepy, but I want to stay up later
music: Elvis - Return to Sender
location: dorm
I had a new class today (that is, one that I have not previously been to). It was my EE lab. I think I'm going to like EE; I walk into this classroom and it's filled with all these machines that do things like measure voltage and current and the like, and also ones that you can use to build circuits, and all this other exciting stuff. Exciting to me, anyway. But my professor, Jeff Gerfen, has me a little worried. We learned about Ohm's Law, a subject that I covered in Physics E&M last year. I knew what he was talking about (yay for "college prep" high school classes!). But perched on my stool in the back of the lab I couldn't help but think that if I hadn't previously learned that voltage = current x resistance, I wouldn't have understood a word of what he was talking about. His lecture was mildly sporadic, and he spent a lot of time on things that I felt weren't as important as some of the things he rushed through. I don't know...maybe it was fine. I'm just a little worried that when we get to the stuff that I don't already know Professor Gerfen won't be able to sufficiently explain it. We'll see, I guess...
That lab actually ended an hour or so before it was scheduled to, so I was a little before 2. So I went to the sandwich factory for a bite to eat. The line was about 10 people long, as opposed to the line of 50 or so that stretches out the door and into the University Union during the lunch rush. I had roast beef and swiss on a wheat roll, and it was pretty darned good. But the best part was when I went to pay for the meal, I had some cash left over. (When you use a meal credit instead of plus dollars, you get a "cash equivalency," i.e., the value of the food that you can buy with that one meal credit. If the credit is worth $8 and you spend $5, it still uses the entire credit. So when you're under, you grab everything within reach of the cashier to get your money's worth.) So I grabbed a couple of candy bars...and it's like getting them for free. And who doesn't like free stuff? I don't not like free stuff!
So that was what today was about. Fairly low-key. I was able to go to the gym...that's one good thing about my schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays start late, so I can do a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday gym schedule while always going in the mornings. I still need to adjust to the gym here. I'm used to the machines back at home. I wish Dad or Dave were here to get me started on a new program with the machines I have available to me here. I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later.
Well, good night for now. I hope the RB football game went well. And by football game, I mean halftime show. (Because we all know it's mostly about the band anyway.) And on that note (Get it? Note! Ha ha! Like musical notes? Come on, it's funny!) I'll sign off.
Talk to you all soon,
Josh
mood: sleepy, but I want to stay up later
music: Elvis - Return to Sender
location: dorm
