Steps to Having an Awesome Week at Mines

Having all my tests (well three) the week before break was great. I highly recommend it. Or not, thinking back to that week. But this week was pretty great. But it didn't have to be. There are a few things that made it awesome.

First off, there was no Lon-Capa due on Monday. Or Math worksheet due on Wednesday. Or CompSci assignments until Friday. I know, awesome. The only thing I had due were a few NHV readings and this stupid dumb idiotic Boulderish paper about me and the environment for NHV. I know NHV is called "Nature and Human Values" for a reason, but seriously? I hoped it wasn't too cheesy, because I wrote it at 3 a.m. But that was the only night I stayed up that late. It felt weird to get to bed early the other nights (1 a.m.). But it was nice. I even woke up early one morning to meet friends to get the Word in during breakfast. Yeah, awesome.

If you live around here and have a beating heart, you probably know that the weather this week was the best it could have been. Mid-70's....sunny....need I say more? It's impossible to be depressed when it's like that. It was a perfect time to go fly my kite that I got from Career Day... I'll have to find some time to do it this week. Most of my friends got some level of sunburn, except me (Thank you, genetics!). I studied outdoors a couple times. Yeah, awesome.

I got the rest of my scores back, and they turned out alright. Well more than alright: my NHV Synthesis paper received the highest grade I've ever gotten on a "test" thing at Mines. Which isn't saying much, but at least it gives me a mark to shoot over for my next Calc and/or Physics exam. Like I told you before, I made a lot of stupid mistakes on my recent Calc test though. Yeah, awesome.

But classes are going well. Kuo (physics) is great, telling us how wrong the two years of highschool physics I took were in a big booming voice. Mrs. Walker (Calc II) is great, and partial fractions and differential equations are kind of fun. Hellman (Intro to Computer Science) is great, running back and forth of the lecture room making CompSci fun, inserting bad puns, all while wearing a shirt with a binary joke on it. Even PA with Bhakta is alright- I'm learning not to cross my arms, and playing games is fun, right?

I picked the perfect day to go back to Chem Lecture on Friday. Racicot blew stuff up for a half hour and that's it. Oh here, just look:

He asked if there were other visitors and I raised my hand. "What are you doing here? Trying to get me fired?" "I...." "Just kidding." "Okaaay...". I hope and am almost certain he was kidding (or that's what I've chosen to believe). Why else would I come to Chem lecture besides to have fun and re-live old times of Racicot blowing stuff up? I know, right? Did you see the bright magnesium and then the huge flame hit the balloon that eventually exploded into a huge fireball? Yeah, awesome.

I officially started Capa on Monday and the math worksheet (due next Wednesday) quite early also. Which made my weekend pretty awesome to enjoy. Hmm, I should do that more often- start homework early. It would do me well, and I've been meaning to all of freshman year pretty much. But it works and I highly recommend it. I finished off my week with two hotdogs, three and one-half baseball games, adding in binary, and serving tacos to 75 Maplians.

Yeah, pretty awesome.

A Break (Or, "Oh Hey, It's Really Spring!")

It's my first Spring Break in college. Everyone asked me what I was doing, to which I replied "Going home" or "Sleeping" or "Baseball", which all ended up to be true, but there was a little more to it than that.

My first day back, my mom makes fun of my socks. No one at Mines ever makes fun of my socks, in fact I just got a compliment on my socks (from a guy, of all creatures), but really- I like my socks.

It didn't take long before I wanted to play outside. And it only took a few minutes before my right pinkie finger was twice as fat as my other one, because I was playing catch with my little brother and I was too stupid to wait until my other brother scavenged up a glove. Even though the old flat glove was awful (and I left mine at Maple), I concluded that I am just as unathletic as ever, being lame at catching, but my throwing skills took an upgrade since I'm so awesome at throwing dodgeballs by now (not really though). The grass, though mostly brown is starting to turn green. I love this time of year, and the weather this week was awesome.

The first few days were a little basketball-y. My mom likes basketball so after I took a nap on the couch Sunday (my bed was full of clothes...augh), we went to Mines basketball game in the NCAA DII tournament. Cool stuff, fun times. And I'm used to having to clean and make sure no one runs across the court, so it was cool to not have to do that. We won of course, and would face Metro Tuesday. So Tuesday my dad had tickets to the Nuggets game. I know, basketball galore. I told Brady to text me updates for the Mines game. At the end, the Nuggets won a supposedly amazing game by tying it with very few seconds left and going into OT. In short, as my dad said, it was "the most exciting boring NBA game" we had ever seen. Brady told me Mines lost. So I obviously wasn't so stoked about basketball. Besides, kids kept kicking and screaming and NBA players don't play defense and the players look so far compared to  me being on the court all the time. So whatever.

I ate Carl's pizza for the first time in forever (winter break). I also ate a lot of other good food. I realized I'm getting quite out of shape and need to exercise if I don't want to pass out during the Ore-Cart pull (I'm kind of joking but not really- I was sore all week from bouldering the Friday before- shows you how much I'm in shape.) But on a similar note, I'm really excited that there's only one more weekend after this until the weekend E-days takes place (and then Opening Weekend after that weekend). It's a good time to be alive.

I pretty much tried to sleep in until 1 p.m., and pretty much succeeded. Getting 10 hours in my old bed is nice, but of course I'll never be able to catch up on sleep lost this year and the rest of my will-be four years. But it was nice. It was also nice that a lot of my classes just had tests and everything due the week before Spring Break. This week, there was no math worksheets due, or homework, or NHV drafts (but a lot of readings that I have not done yet), or physics homework on Lon-Capa to do even if I wanted to, so it was a nice unstressful time. I did have time to fill out a couple applications though. But that's it for productivity.

I think a week was a perfect amount of time. Enough time to get my room messy. Get excited about the stretch run of freshman year. Realize that no one head bangs to TobyMac with you like your brothers (ha, well there wasn't really headbanging going on). Annoy my sister by serenading her with ukulele and making her mad that uke is way more easy than guitar. (Realize I didn't really learn any new songs for ukulele...oh well.) Stay up late, but sleep in 'cause I don't have to do anything. And eat hotdogs and listen to baseball (oh cool, look- a fake walkoff).

I really do love Spring.

They Said It Ain't Gonna Be Easy...

Hi people.

I've been really busy. I've been really tired. I've kind of been stressed. A lot of things go on and I don't get time to sit. But here we go.

(Dang I need to see when the last time I posted was and what I posted about....Oh that, haha.)

I'm already in the midst of "midterms" (which doesn't mean anything other than they are the second round of tests). Everybody's been freaking out. Especially those poor people who aren't Geophysics majors (or CompSci, or Math, or Electrical I think). I only have two tests this week plus my NHV paper (which I guess is a pretty major thing). I don't know. It's rough. I've had so much homework due so I don't study until late at night and as a result, don't sleep. I work my brain to mush for physics and then come out of the test dead. And I didn't even freak out during the test- must've been hard. Others concur. I reason that with the amount of guessing I did, I got a 55. The average turns out to be 57.

They said it wasn't going to be easy.

I knew that, but I thought it'd take a couple semesters for the average on an exam to be failing. It sucks, because I work so hard and now I'm sure of certain failure (which I now realize is repetitiously redundant). I feel like punching everyone I know that goes to non-engineering school in the face, which is extreme, I know but not as extreme as talking about assisted and attempted suicides for the kids that just took that test. Yes, it was that hard- some of you will not understand and I am glad for you. Lon-Capa takes forever to load and then finally does. I am never so happy to not fail a test.

And then I try to study two chapters of Calculus II material for the test today (this was yesterday). And then stay up 'til 4.

They said I'd have to work hard and late.

I never knew what that was. But now, I have to study everything before a test. Which reminds me, I have one in an hour and a half.

***

That test was easy. Way too easy in fact, that I know I screwed up and made a bunch of stupid mistakes and solved this one problem "The Physics Way" because that's the right way to. But it's over, and it was a big fat piece of chocolate cake compared to the physics exam.

We'll see. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Like in Physics, I guessed three questions right out of six unknown with 5 different options each. Math you gotta know your stuff. So for luck you do your routine, maybe. My routine is eating dinner (I mostly have a post-test routine) and praying really really hard (it was only by the grace of God I got a decent grade on Physics). I have a CSM Department of Physics pencil I use for all things Physics. And for Math and CompSci I usually wear a baseball cap to the exam so I don't pull all my hair out- Physics assumes anyone wearing anything but clothes is a cheater and liar and out to kill people, so I don't wear a hat to that, obviously. Last Math test I wore my oldest Rockies hat, and tonight I wore my newest Mines hat. We'll see how this one performs- I gotta break it in. Anyways. I use yellow or orange colors of pencils for Math, because that's what color I think it is (Physics is blue, Chem would be red...).Water is good, but only sometimes. I like to be awake during my exams so sometimes I caffeinate up. And I don't look at the exam or try to read it turned over before we're supposed to. A lot of times, I don't even look ahead (especially for Physics) while doing it. And usually I have success with not freaking out.

It's weird having to think during an exam. There is always one (or 20) questions that will rack your brain. If you don't have a headache afterward, you're doing it wrong. And it's always funny when you score lower on the subject you work everything for than the others. But back to thinking- I don't think I ever thought or reasoned through any test in highschool (or kindergarten for that matter); they were just so easy. Formulas: memorize and bam. If I got an A-, I was doing it wrong. How things change. I guess it's good. I hope it's not too unhealthy. If it's not I have time to catch up on sleep for a couple days.

So the battle's half-way over. It was not easy.

They say the third Physics test is easy...

Time to study for an A in the class.

The Sine of Spring

(Or, a Really Bad Math Pun that Probably Has Nothing to do With Anything, as I am Putting Words on a Screen at an Insane Hour).



Woo, yay.

I got through the first round of tests. I think. Yay! I unfortunately never made it out of the first round of RA interviews, my hopes and dreams dying in Slate as I read the rejection email. Boo.




But yeah...now I'll have to prepare for the next round of tests...I should be writing a NHV draft paper thingie, but eh. There's a holiday tomorrow. It's called the Day After Pitchers and Catchers Report. Yay. And we get it off. Yay.

No, I think it's a day about Presidents that Mines actually decided to give us off. But still we get to stay up late and catch up on homework tomorrow. And again, start thinking about the second round of tests. Eww.

I really don't know why I am awake right now. Er, yes. (mumbles something while trying to sound classy)

I don't know how I feel about Physics test #2. There's a lot to be learned- Torque, traveling in circles, and springs. Yeah springs. Up, down. Up, down. And up and down. And back to equilibrium. And their motion is described by Sine graphs? Okay.

So yeah. Time- it flies. It's already Spring Training. It's already to our first break. Now three weeks 'til Spring Break. And a couple weeks after that until E-Days: the E-Pocolypse. Woot. And then HVZ the Sequel Starts soon after which also happens to fall on Opening Day. Wow, gee. A lot of stuff to happen soon it will. Whoa. Sorry about that.

Oh and WinterVarsity is next weekend. No time to be bored until ever. And freshman year will soon be over.   Dude, don't get me depressed.

Math is gross. I don't like it.

I want Spring to come now.

Just Another Ordinary Week at Mines

Brady and I finished Lon-Capa last Thursday night. I was proud of us. But I still had my Computer Science 101 homework to do that was due Friday. The thing was- a blizzard was expected to sweep through the Denver Metro area. And although I knew Mines never, ever gave snowdays off, I was counting on it all evening until I gave in and decided to do my homework. It started snowing- a lot. But not enough. So I did my homework, and went to sleep at around 2 a.m. This set the tone for the coming week.

I didn't have to wake up until 10:30 on Friday anyway..but when Sara told me class got canceled, I got so happy and fell back asleep. I awoke to two texts asking if I wanted to go sledding. People were in the hallway of my floor sitting and talking because there was no school. I looked outside and was surprised Mines canceled even though it was blizzard conditions. I put on my ski goggles and a skirt and went sledding. That's right.

When we got to Sorority Hill, I realized there was a lot of snow. Like, dude. It made a bank at the beginning of the parking lot and when you reached the bottom, you were covered. There were quite a few people up there already including some of my Bradford friends and some IV kids. We made a huge chain of disks and long sleds and everything else and went down at once- yeah, it was crazy.

Krista told us her great idea about ambushing the Sparkly Mancave...so after getting food from the Cruplex and sitting and drinking hot chocolate, we got a text that the Sparkly Man Cave residents were going to be sledding also...hmmm, the perfect time for an attack?

Seven of us went down to the Cave. Us three girls stayed on level ground, while the guys decided to built forts and arsenals on top of the roof. Yes, the roof. We packed the snow and engineered the trenches in the Cave's backyard and waited for them to return. A call was received...the response was given to not be suspicious: "Just chillin' with peeps". Indeed, it was chilly. Daniel got back and saw one of the guys on the roof. No biggie- just a friend on the roof, having a conversation. Then someone yelled, "This is Sparta!!" and we attacked with our awesome snowballs. Some more friends were expected to arrive from the front, so we made some more walls and waited. And waited. And got wet. And waited. And got cold. And shyly looked up when the targets finally arrived..."oh hi, there...".

Our jean fabric garments were not very comfortable, so we dried them and played Halo. I like guns. But I'm horrible, so playing with a few noobs was fun. Big guns are even better. And sniping. Aw, yeah. Connor and John walked it to find their houses overtaken with Halo playing people, some of which with fashionable blanket skirts. Some of us decided we were hungry so we went to Woody's and all had the buffet. Then we went back to our respective residences for a little while until going back to the cave for game night, and fashionably so. I remember being so tired though...walking up and down a hill is a lot of work- more than I do in PA.

And that was Friday, and that was epic. I woke up with the same amount of homework and tests coming up, but one less day to complete preparations for them. Here's what I had on my plate:

• Mathematica Project
• CompSci assignment
• Two weeks worth of Calculus homework due for a quiz
• Nature and Human Values paper
• Nature and Human Values extra credit paper (well...I never got to that, so I'll do it this week)
• Another CompSci assignment
• Physics studying (practice problems, test, studio)
• Math Worksheet
• Math studying (notecard and practice tests)
• NHV debate prep about GMOs
• Yet another CompSci assignment
• Laundry (to be continued)

How was I supposed to do this? One day at a time, I guess. I woke up early on Saturday and Sunday to get stuff done- which was good. The worst thing I knew looming was the Physics test and the Math homework I had to complete due before that. I studied for Physics most of the time, because it was fun. I revised my NHV paper after that, because that was also fun...not really. My teacher gave the advice "(such and such section) could be more clear". I looked over it and banged my head against the desk because I had no idea who wrote this paper and what they were trying to convey. I tried to give it to friends but they didn't know either, but said it was fine. Sigh. I mean, I do my best writing past midnight, but apparently before 3 a.m. It was kinda bad.

After Sunday morning, I had nearly done all the practice problems for Physics. So as much as I didn't want to move on to studying another subject, I had to get some Math done. Some IV kids were getting together for the Super Bowl. We brought homework and were actually surprisingly productive between cheering for Tom Brady's legs to break and watching commercials. Still- math never ends. So yeah, I stayed up late Sunday, but not as late as some. Good thing I did Capa (but that also means I got to help people with it too). 

Wake up. Classes. Lunch. Classes. Some homework. Dinner. A lot of homework/studying. Get to bed at 3. Repeat.

Physics test was fun, but challenged me mentally. It also didn't help that I started freaking out a half hour before. And the kids waiting outside of Metals Hall were being so loud...it's funny how kids act when they know they're about to fail a test. But anyway, I freaked out and stopped having the capacity to think until I got to the projectile motion problem, smiled, and went on. Phys I scores are posted the morning after (and I was almost up when they posted them). So I couldn't sleep soundly, not to mention just getting 6 hours after having to do the Math Worksheet. Whatevs. 

Wednesday...oh gosh. Normal stuff all the way til it came time to study for Calculus II- the worst math class known to normal mankind. I had t -20 hours to learn everything. I was so screwed. A few of us on the 1st North had the same test and occupied the study room: the room I had barely left the past week. I came to terms I would likely not get to sleep hardly at all. But thought about my schedule the following morning and then came to terms this would not be the night to pull my first non-recreational all-nigher. I started writing out my notecard, but it was looking like everything wouldn't fit on it. So I took notes of my 8923843298 thus far pages of notes, and then took notes of those and made my notecard. 3 a.m. I started working over a past test. I yawned. "Let me give you a Red Bull. Stay up with me," Brandon pleaded. I declined, knowing I needed some sleep. So at 4:45 I finally gave up and Brandon ended being Survivor: Mines Study Room while pulling an all-nighter. I still couldn't sleep. 5 o'clock, and I can't sleep?! I thought about how much this sucked.  And then thought if I'd remember that night, or if I'd remember the fun part of the night with all of us there, laughing every so often, working hard, hearing stories of superstition, and realizing "I'm in section F....that can't be good!" (cries).

I woke up alive and energized, but I still thought I was doomed. Maybe a little less now that I had studied, but still doomed. (Not sure if I went to Digger Den and bought two glasses of Starbucks then, or Tuesday....). But I was awake all day. Got through NHV debate. Realized I forgot to do an assigned reading and muttered "Oh, crap" under my breath as she passes out the quizzes. But yeah. I was pretty much reviewing up until exam time, something I never like to do (I have my pre-test routine, yo). But got through it. And was so, so happy when it was all over and did my post-test routine and when to Digger Den. Then we ended up having a jam session in Maple into the wee hours way past the time when the music practice room is supposed to be open. 

Yeah, tons of craziness this full week. And then I woke up and did my last CompSci assignment for the week.  Luckily I have work tomorrow (Go Orediggers!), RA interviews Sunday, and only the CompSci test this week. Only. Oh, and laundry.