Due to awesome circumstances that will have me flying out to San Francisco next Sunday to attend the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting, I have to take all my finals early. In short, this week gonn' be cray.
This week, I'm going to do a daily log like I did freshman year Fall semester here. See you on the other side, brother.
Sunday, December 01, 2013 6:09 p.m.
Mental stability: Fine
Hours of sleep last night: 8
So this is what stands between me and being done with this semester:
I'm so unmotivated and want it to be next week already, but lab reports don't write themselves, so...yeah.
Monday, December 02, 2013 5:48 p.m.
Mental stability: Meh, alright
Hours of sleep last night: 7
Blehhh....this paper on elastodynamics that we have to read for extra credit for Dynamic Fields makes me want to punch myself in the face. Who knew math could be so aesthetically appealing yet comprehensively challenging at the same time?
Wednesday (but still Tuesday since the sun hasn't risen), December 04, 2013 1:32 a.m.
Mental stability: confused, caffeinated and yeah
Hours of sleep last night: 6 (I'm sensing a pattern here).
So in the midst of studying for our Dynamic Fields final tomorrow, the school got an email that the campus would close tomorrow, or basically we would have a snow day. So we were like, "woot", and then I was like, "Oh, hmm that means we won't be done with DF forever, oh wells." And then there was an email saying school IS NOT cancelled, and then we were all like "Noooooooooo," but a few of us have mixed emotions because I just want stuff tomorrow to be over with. Else, I'd have to reschedule stuff and that is very hard this week. Anyway, I buy into the theory that the first email was hacked and this was some cruel prank.
Wednesday, December 04, 2013 10:39 p.m.
Hours of sleep: 6
It's too cold to study. Bleh.
Also, I have forgotten how to study alone. I have zero motivation.
On the bright side, Dynamic Fields is over forever.
Thursday, December 05, 2013, 12:34 a.m.
Mental stability: alarmingly calm (not caring)
After the catastrophe (that did prove to be a hacking of some sorts), Facebook was flooded with very angry posts by very angry people, and my Snapchat was also flooded with crying and sad faces. A tragedy, indeed. However, I somehow felt pressured to hate the school, and how dare they not give us a school day, even if it was barely precipitating (but deathly cold), especially after we received an erroneous email!!!!!!!
Um, okay.
Honestly, I remember a day when I really used to care about school, when it was life and doing well was everything. This might have been way back in kindergarten, but why have we lost this love of learning so much, that we would rather do nothing on the day in which most would have critical review sessions, and for us, final exams that are a huge part of their degree. We pay so much money per credit hour; I would have been really mad had we not been able to go to school today. I don't want to sound holier-than-thou because I did really enjoy that snow day freshman year in February, but that was not one of the last days of class, there was way more snow on the ground, and the "brilliant idea" for a snow day was not put forth through a hacking.
But after celebrating for 30 minutes while being diappointed, I read the email and was disappointed and celebrating again. Then I studied more at The Stoop with Shane, which is a good thing because two-fifths of the questions that appeared on the final would not have been studied otherwise.
Also, something something about wishing upon a sigma-star (real and imaginary part of conductivity).
But anyway, I rocked my I Love Mines mug today with coffee in it. Rebecca glared at me. I rambled about how much I love my education.
Almost....there....
Al...most....there....
Friday (Thursday really), December 06, 2013 1:41 a.m.
Hours of sleep last night: like 8 (No Field Methods, woooo!)
Mental Stability: Pretty good
My predicament this deathly cold week in which I have realized that I would hate living in Hoth:
The cold and the need to study makes for an interesting combination. But they both add up to caffeine. Once consumed in the late evening, they both make for a night of sparse sleep. Once awake in the morning, the need for studying is heightened. However, my internet is slow and I cannot download the lecture slides. So I need to venture out into the cold. The cold intensified the need for a hot drink. And such and such.
Twelve more hours!
Saturday, (Friday really), December 07, 2013 1:38a.m.
This day combined everything I loved and hated about this semester and this school.
Sunday, December 08, 2013 11:16 a.m.
But yeah, as I was saying...
I woke up to take my AEM final, but made coffee first. I also needed to make my notecard. I had not studied at all. Then it was two cold hours in the Geophysics Reading Room trying to remember Partial Differential Equations because I had forgotten to put PDE stuff on my notecard. Then I went to Subway. Then I went back to Green Center and took the Electrical Methods test. After 40 minutes, I emerged, and was done with exams. Woot. After my professor told me again of how awesome of a class we were, I walked to across the hall and started the last homework coding assignment for Electrical Methods. My classmates had been working on it for hours. The Linux Lab was buzzing. And it would end up taking me 12 hours to complete. Thankfully not 12 straight hours, as I left at 5 to go to Bob's Atomic Burgers with Jayden and only worked for five hours on Saturday after sleeping in. After getting back to coding, we also had the Moonlight Breakfast (free food!) at Slate to look forward to. At about 11p.m., I headed to The Loft and got to hang out with a few IV people.
But as I told Rebecca Saturday evening while at Panera, it's been an awesome semester. How did Saturday (and the whole week) combine everything I love and hate about Mines? I hate the craziness, but love the craziness. I'm still in awe of how I've made it through it all, the five finals in three days with homework and stuff--not to mention three straight semesters with 18 or more credit hours. I love the craziness because it really brings people together. By studying with my geophysics friends and goofing off and going to Moonlight Breakfast at Slate, I can see that we've built an awesome community. I haven't had that much fun studying since freshman year in Maple 159, the Maple 1st study room. And Shane, upon learning that I'd leave the Linux Lab to eat and not help him with MATLAB said, "Why are you always going to dinner with friends?! Do you bribe them?". Haha, no, but I'm glad that I've been able to hang on to old friends too in the midst of craziness.
Next semester is going to be so fun. Spring semesters hold baseball, E-Days, Spring Break....and hopefully good times in geophysics and good times with old friends (oldies but goodies).
But for now, school's over and I'm out.
