End of the Semester: I LIVE

After recuperating from an all nighter to finish my design final and a several hour flight back home, I can update what happened recently. I also now remember how bad the wi-fi is at home:

My spatial dynamics final. Woodworking, though still injury inducing and probably bad for my health considering the solvents in my dorm, is surprisingly fun.

The prompt was:

1. 6 in. by 8 in. by 12 in box
2. Some type of personal content or meaning
3. Openings

Two of which kind of barely hit the mark, but hey I like it, my teacher liked it, it's all good. It looked a lot more boxy at the beginning. I think this was my seventh iteration?

Ahaha, some of the past models. Looking back gives me an aneurysm. 

We also had to give it a title, Nostalgia in my case. Take it how you will.

 I'll update with my drawing final next time.

Dio: It's Finals Week

So, if the title hasn't given it away yet, it's finals week, which means this is that last chance for me to see if I can get high passes in any of my subjects. Time to actually cover some academic topics.

1. Grading

I never explained this clearly, but grading at my school for the first semester of freshman year is strange. Since we're all making the transition from high school to college, and my school is known for its notorious workload, for the first semester, instead of receiving letter grades, we get High Pass, Pass, or No Pass. A high pass is equivalent to an A, a pass is a B-C, and a no pass is everything below that. Next semester we get letter grades like everyone else, which is something I'm worried about, but this semester we have what we call "pass/fail".

2. Finals

Now that we've covered grading, let's talk about finals. Finals here is very different from most other schools. Actually, exams here are very different from most other schools. Since my school operates under a very strict honor code (we are encouraged to self-report anything that we do that breaks the rules), most of our exams are take-home. This means we have a certain amount of time to finish them in any setting we want, whether it be in the privacy of our dorm room, under a tree outside, or at the library. Teachers also allow us to listen to music during the exam, as long as it doesn't break the honor code. It's quite nice, having teachers treat you like the responsible adults you soon will be.

3. The upcoming holiday schedule

So right after finals are the holidays. This also means that we won't be posting as often as we would normally, since we'll be busy meeting up with each other, having sleepovers, goofing off, doing a project at some company, learning R and VBA, etc. I'm assuming that we'll have more concrete information when we meet up again, and I guess one of us will post then.

See you all in 2016. Dio signing off.

Dot December?

120815

1.

One day more to end of lectures

One more week till final

Imma leaving after that

2.

I can't believe that the year is ending already.

It feels like I just graduated from high school.

3.

No snow yet. I doubt I'll ever see snow this semester.

4.
I really can't think of anything to write

Dio has decided to forgo the mission report style

Dio is going to complain about college life here.

1. Finals

Finals are coming up in about a week. Dio's last final is that Thursday, so after that Dio's going home. Dio has three finals: Chemistry, Probability and Statistics, and Computer Science, as well as a final portfolio to submit for freshman seminar. Dio is most apprehensive about chemistry, which brings me to my next point.

2. Chemistry

There is a chemistry prof here who makes the worst packets. And by worst, I mean worse than this:

To quote the most recent packet:

"Beyond its Tm, a crystalline polymer loses its polymeric physical properties at temperatures beyond Tm because the polymer is a liquid."

And this:

"The production of low density LDPE is possible using high pressure that results in considerable branching of the polymer that does not allow the polymer chains to pack tightly resulting in an open structure of low density a density that would allow the polymer to float on water."

All in all, I am very pleased by the amount of hard work and effort this chem prof puts into writing these packets.

3. Transportation

So Dio is taking a bus home. It's about a seven hour journey from downtown LA to Dio's hometown, which means that I will have to be on a bus with other humans for seven whole hours. I am looking forward to it. Really. (not)

This also means that I have to pack rather light, since too much luggage makes it hard to move things around. However, I have clothes, blankets, and pillows to bring home, and one trunk to put them all in. Time to squish things! Squishing things is fun.

This concludes Dio's report for the week. Signing off.

Blu: I Took Thanksgiving Off Because I Honor Every Holiday That I Don't Have To Go To School For With Laziness And A General Lack Of Movement But Now It Is Dead Week And I Do Find Myself Imagining That I Am Dead Much More Often What A Coincidence

Hey friends

I don't understand why I felt compelled to address everyone reading this as a friend. But to be honest if you are reading this, you probably know me personally.

Happy Dead Week! for me/fellow quarter system students (The rest of you will get there soon enough or you're there already I don't know)

There's a huge increase of events now and they all provide food and claim to destress you. There's too many events. At this point it's so easy not to study and just go to the events. I want to just go to the events.

There's a thing called the primal scream where people scream out their window at midnight. (It's Wikipedia official.) I don't know how true it is because we live far far away from the other freshman dorms/general housing. But there's still a couple people who do it. I empathize so much though.

Generally, I still feel like I'm missing out on things. Maybe it's how everyone's applying/applied/getting interviews for job related things and I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe it's pressure from parents. Maybe it's people saying nonsense about "connections" and "being a good reference" and "talk to me anytime in the future" at the ends of classes. Because no, I haven't been doing those things.

Phrases I Decided Were Important Enough To Write Down Throughout The Past Few Weeks

You can only bike through the quad during the night. Any other time and it's disappointing 

I like the walk through the rodin sculpture garden around dead weak because I feel like I empathize with the statues better

Get your work done on breaks. I'm looking at you thanksgiving break. 

Bluray is lame just get the normal dvd 

ex cs partner works at the media and microtexts center on Friday afternoons, parts of Sunday too 

I get upset every time a cool berkeley event comes on my facebook feed 

Every time the wifi disconnects it's like a passive aggressive reminder that I don't deserve to be in this university

Associations and pattern recognition don't translate well into people

(are we still doing this over winter break?)

120215 I'm not dead yet

120215

Sorry for missing the post for two times in a row.
I don't even know how that even happened.

What I can add captions?

 

I created three profile images to make up for other two entries ahahahah....

1.
I'm doing fine so far; there is only two weeks of school (and the final week) left till the winter break.
My plan is to re-learn Calculus 1 for the next semester, but I know that it won't be all that successful ahaha.

2.
If you knew that you have this genetically inherited condition with no cure that will kill you slowly and painfully with gradual loss in memory, what would you do?

I can't think of any other solution but to kill myself.

The cruel part of this is that you're born like this --there is no one to blame.
But the positive side of this is that you're prepared for end of your life; you would be able to live for the moment instead of worrying about the future since you have no future.

3.
How was your Thanksgiving?
I had an unforgettable Thanksgiving.

Too bad that I wasn't able to see my family.

4.
I feel like my handwriting is getting better. Everyone, except my mom, have bad handwriting in my family. My brother is the worst; I think there is no hope for improvement for him.