Shadowfiend23 @ Wrocław

So the past week has been pretty good. I had a relaxing weekend on campus; we (Deanna, Jake, Amy and I) went to many events at Coffman. We painted some frisbees and some sunglasses, we had smoothies from Maui Wowie, we had a caricature drawn of the four of us (I will add that picture later), and we saw Due Date at the Coffman movie theater. We liked it, but it was hard to watch because Galifanakas’ character was such a bumbling idiot that he continually worsened the situations he and Robert Downey Jr.’s character were in. I thought it was like a blend of Dinner for Schmucks and Pineapple Express.

The Superbowl was pretty fun. Jake, Amy, Deanna, and I watched it together with chips and mango salsa close at hand. Jake was ecstatic when the Packers won – he was jumping up and down and screaming. It was a very strange thing to watch, if I must say.

We have been watching some old childhood tv shows lately – Jake showed Deanna, Amy, and me Mummies Alive and Street Sharks while I showed them Kablam! and Rocko’s Modern Life. I love watching the old shows because nostalgia can be very enjoyable. I actually watched an episode of Rugrats today while I was eating the wonderful leftover chili from last night’s dinner (good work Deanna).

Anyway, I have a paper to write for Friday in my French 3101 class, but I am not too worried about it because I already have Les Fleurs du Mal, the collection from which the poem I need to analyze is drawn. It is an interesting poem. It is one of the four parts of the poem Spleen de Paris. I will definitely need to think more about it tomorrow.

Sadly, we did not get our tests back today in French 3016, but we did have an interesting discussion about philosophy, religion, and politics. However interesting the class was, the lecture was haphazard because the professor hadn’t prepared correctly today (he was one day off). We didn’t learn very much, which you could consider a pro or con depending upon your point of view. I liked what he had to say, at least.

Fourier Analysis is still going well. Nothing too difficult so far. No test coming up. All’s clear on the western front.

I have a test in Calc IV Friday, and I am slightly worried about it. The theory is no problem, but we need to do certain matrix ops by hand (no calculator on this test), and there is always room for error when mental math is involved. I feel pretty confident about it though.We’ll see how I feel this Friday.

Well, I better get to bed – I need to LA for discussion tomorrow. See you later!

Hello all! Another week down!

Deanna and I went to a Guster concert last Friday, and I must say that it was very fun. I have liked Guster for years, so it was very fun to see them in concert finally. The lead singer had a very funny stage presence, illustrated by a scene where he had the crowd boo him when he came back onto the stage, prompting him to give us middle fingers and swearing at us (as a joke of course). The State theater is amazing as one would guess, so I am glad to go back there. I know Deanna covered this a little bit already, but it was nice to actually have a successful concert at the State Theater. Last time we went there (to see Snow Patrol), we were very late and technical difficulties plagued the performance. Hopefully we can see Snow Patrol again some day…anyway, if you want to see the pictures of the concert, you should check out Deanna’s blog!!!

My classes are still chugging along – I have a test in French 3016 next Monday, and I am quite scared about that. Thankfully I have nothing else coming up until them, so I can focus almost entirely on that. Every other class is OK. Nothing particularly worrying or difficult. Same old same old.

Tonight, I needed to be one of the leaders for a review session for physics 1301 (the class for which I am LA-ing). Overall it was pretty fun because I really do like instructing (and there was a lot of math!), but one of the other LAs kept trying to undermine my authority, and I think that he overstepped his boundaries a few times. It was definitely hard not to explain things more sometimes though…

On a side note, I had to do a lot of dishes last night. AGH! I hate doing them!

On another note, Jake, Deanna, and I went to a Japanese place tonight (Deanna and I went there Monday actually), and Jake ordered a seafood hot pot. He was excited about eating exotic things, but he wasn’t prepared for the tiny octopi that he got. The suckers had a weird texture, and it was very odd to eat the heads.

Well, I guess that’s all. Talk to you later!

So it is the second week of classes and it has been going well so far!  I have been really stressed lately because it feels like I am constantly working.  I guess that is the life of a working man… 🙂

Fourier Analysis teacher is hard to understand because he has a strong Chinese accent, but so far the class is pretty easy.  For my French 3016 class I am surprised at the somewhat low speaking ability of most of the students (not that I am that great).  The teacher of that class is very rigid and precise, but seems more structured than our French 3015 teacher.  J’aime son style d’apprendre.  French 3101 is very work intensive, but the teacher is pretty liberal so far (no assignments to turn in)!  Honors Calc 4 has been really easy to this point.  Busy work, busy work, busy work.  LA-ing has been fun, it’s nice to try out teaching and it’s rewarding to feel like I have helped students.

We have made a lot of interesting meals lately: General Tso’s chicken with fried rice, bread-crumb crusted chicken with spaghetti, kung pao chicken, and coconut curry couscous.  I am doing a bit of emotional eating… which probably isn’t good.

Tomorrow, Deanna and I are going to the Guster concert at the State Theatre and we are both really excited!!!  We have been there once before and are happy to be going back because our last concert there was cut short by our first day of French 1003.  Deanna got me a really cool toy helicopter as an early birthday present; Jake and I have been playing with it ever since!  On a less positive note, I discovered that the back wheel on my bike has been stolen 🙁 🙁 🙁

Deanna is writing my entry this week because she thought it would be nice!  (Aaron is dictating)

So, I am pretty sleepy right now, but I haven’t written for a while, so I will quickly summarize my past few weeks. I took a french test and a physics test last Friday – I will be getting them back this Friday and tomorrow, respectively. I think I did very well on the physics test and pretty well on the french test. The french teacher told me that I should consider being a french major because she thinks I am so good at it. I wonder whether she meant that…also, what provoked the comment? She just told me before class.

Anyway, we saw Obama a few Saturdays ago at the Field House. We waited in line for three hours, thinking that there was no way we were getting in (as the line snaked from the Field House, down Washington, up Church St., around the Mall (where we were), and down the Washington Ave. bridge). We saw first a student speaker, then Al Franken, then Amy Klobuchar, then Mark Dayton, then Obama himself. Deanna’s friend Amy waited with us most of the time but she left to go somewhere with her aunt and uncle about ten minutes before we got in (big mistake in my opinion). Umbrellas were not permitted inside the building, but it was forecasted to rain that day, so many trees along the line were adorned with discarded umbrellas. Deanna was too short to see the speakers very well, but Jake and I could see pretty well. I don’t have any pictures available at the moment because Deanna lost the memory card she was using to take the pictures (it’s fine).

On a similar note, I voted on Tuesday. There was quite a commotion because I didn’t have any documentation (with me) to prove that I lived at the Dinkydome and because the Dinkydome wasn’t in their lists of addresses, but it all worked out. I like to think that my vote counted.

We had a java assignment assigned on Monday that was supposedly very difficult, but it didn’t take me more than about an hour to do. All it does is determine whether two strings are anagrams of each other, but the catch is that non-letter characters are to be ignored. I decided just to count the number of letter characters in the first and then second string, returning that they are anagrams of each other only when the count for each character is equal. I was first considering the permutation method, but doing ten factorial twice would take just a bit too long. I like my solution.

Normally, I have physics homework due on Thursdays, so I scramble to finish it on Tuesdays and Wednesdays by meeting with some people from my physics class and going over the homework. However, we thankfully don’t have any homework due tomorrow. So, instead of studying tonight, Lucas, Joe, Deanna, and I just met at Middlebrook and played Settlers of Cataan, Cities and Knights. I ended up winning (barely though; Deanna would have won right after my turn, and Lucas would have won after hers). I wished Deanna had won.

Jake and I now have Dragon Age, New Vegas, and the Force Unleashed 2 on his computer, and I am very excited to eventually play them. I wish I had more free time, although I do like studying.

The masquerade party was very fun last Saturday – I went as Luigi, and I believe I was a huge success. We played Rock Band later in the night, and I did pretty well singing on easy and playing guitar on expert. I like being the center of attention when I am doing something in which I excel (is Rock Band impressive?).

To celebrate Halloween on Sunday, Jake, Deanna, Amy, Amy’s boyfriend, Michael, and I all carved pumpkins at our apartment. I carved out the two theatrical faces, drama and comedy. I think mine was very cool-looking. I don’t normally carve unique pumpkins. Just the regular, generic faces.

Well, I have a lot more to say, but I am getting sleepier all the time. More later!

—–Aaron out!

So, as you can tell from the title of this post, we now have a door in my bedroom in the apartment! It won’t be “finished” (painted) until Friday, so I haven’t taken any pictures yet, but I must say that it’s a stark improvement. To keep myself awake in the morning, I have been opening the door and letting light in, so I think that shows how much better it is now. The door was supposed to be installed on Monday, but it was actually installed yesterday because nobody was here on Monday to let the construction workers into the apartment. Still waiting on the hooks for the closet, but I’m more than content with the door for now. Apart from that, I am excited to get my calculus test back tomorrow (I think I did well).  I am really enjoying calculus thus far. It is really easy. Since I correctly my french test completely, I got five points back on it, making my final score on the test 94.75% (maybe 99.75% if you count another assignment…I’m not sure whether that one is extra credit or not…), so I am very happy about that. Also, due to some miscommunication, I did the homework for Friday for today, clearing me in French for a few days at least. Physics is moderately confusing, but I really do enjoy the special theory of relativity. The warping of space-time and the consequences of the constancy of the speed of light are hard for me to imagine, however easy they are to accept. Java is still a cinch. I am basically tutoring someone in that class, and I find it very rewarding. It helps me to grasp the concepts better. As a final note, I am upset that so many dishes need to be done. How do they pile up so quickly? Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. Bonne nuit!

So, at 10:10:10 p.m. tonight, it was 2010 10-10 10:10:10. To commemorate the event, I photographed the exact time this occurred. Sadly, I had to take the picture so quickly that it didn’t focus well. Regardless, here it is:

Apart from that, I had a pretty good weekend. We are actually getting a door tomorrow morning! Very exciting in my opinion. I also just finished my Calculus homework, and I recently corrected my french test (I got an 89.75%). I have a lot more to say, but I think that I will go to bed now. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow (Mondays are my busiest days). More later!

Well, I am now in the fourth week of all of my classes, and the pace is steadily quickening. French is still very stressful because I have so much that I constantly need to study, but I am becoming more comfortable with the class. I still am not comfortable speaking in from of my teacher. No, I point and/or mime my answer to her whenever I can. That isn’t a good sign in a language class. I am enjoying myself in Java – it all is making sense to me. I like to experiment and make my own Java programs, but I don’t usually have time to burn on that. However, when I do have some free time, I like to spend it programming. Physics just became much more confusing because we are starting relativity, but I am going to try to follow along the best I can. That’s really all I am hoping for in the relativity section anyway. Too bad for me that we spend a month on only relativity. C’est la vie. Anyway, Calculus is still easy, but the test on Friday has me worried. I am sure I will do well on it, but any points lost on a test are upsetting to me, and I find it incredibly easy to screw up a math test (with incorrect mental math, a misplaced negative sign, etc.), so we will see how it goes. Perfection in math is rare for me, even though my understanding is deep. So our electricity meter broke and somehow it was displaying zero when it was read – does this mean we just had a month with free electricity? I hope so. We’ll see, I suppose. Downtime hasn’t had bands playing there lately. I wonder what the explanation is for that. At any rate, I likes my quiet. Dishes are always piling up around here. How does that happen? It’s almost like the dirty-dishes fairy comes in at night and performs some “miracles.” Shoo fairy, shoo. Ha but anyway, I am still pretty upset that we don’t have a door on our bedroom. Four weeks after the quota-ed time? That’s pretty unacceptable in my opinion. I don’t care whether the doors have to be special-ordered, they should have arrived by now. Missing being home a bit now. Strange, huh? Well, I’ll leave on that note. Goodnight!

I am up very late right now, but I just can’t seem to sleep. This is my first post from my Droid, so we will see how this goes. I have a physics test this Friday, and I am pretty worried about it. I did not do well on my last graded homework (I missed a negative sign), so my grade looks quite weak right now. I have high hopes for it though. I had a very fun time on the hay ride last Sunday! It was also fun making cider, giving presents, and seeing the family again. It really is nice to be home. French is proving to be more difficult than I originally thought, but I think I can handle it. It just isn’t something in which you can fake proficiency. It takes a lot of work. Java is fun but my programming partner is bugging me. He always disagrees with me and erases any code I write without checking whether that is necessary. Ugh, I really dislike that. We made chocolate chip cookies today, and they were very delicious. I probably ate too many though. Oh well. I would like to write more, but I need to drift off to sleep with thoughts of great circles and tangent vectors…(no joke probably)