Graduation

[Mad78]

OKAY I GRADUATED!!!

And I just got back from a trip to Malaga with some mates to celebrate.

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I feel a little hungover.

[Darth_Rob]

Congrats Mad!!!

[DarthTofu]

Congratulations on the graduation! Way to go! Told you that you'd make it through those exams!

 

If it didn't cost a couple of hundred dollars in disposable income more than I have (hundred? Probably thousand, I guess), I'd totally fly out to Switzerland to celebrate with you. For now, you'll just have to accept my congratulations. Cheers.

[Krytos]

Congrats Mad! Told you things would be fine Edited July 2, 2009 by Krytos

[Mad78]

Thanks guys!

[DarthTofu]

So now that Mad's back in working order, we can return this thread to the all-important original subject: Me! (Kidding, of course)

 

But on a related note, I used my graduation present from my parents last night, and went to see an AC/DC tribute band live. It was impressive, to say the least. I was apprehensive about whether or not they'd be able to find anyone who could do the legendary voice of AC/DC (the show was entitled "Back in Black.") They performed the entire album, from Hells Bells clear through to Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, took a break, and returned to do the "greatest hits." Those included Highway to Hell, Let There be Rock, Girl's Got Rhythm, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, and a few others which, sadly, I didn't recognize. Still, they sounded rather epically awesome for every single song, and the lead singer had the voice pretty much nailed. I think they had a little bit of a backup track (there was one disembodied scream partway through the show), but even if they did, they performed excellently. Four guitars, one set of drums, and one singer- it worked. And all of the guitarists started doing some of the signature guitarist dances in the middle of the show. Heehee- it was awesome!

[Mad78]

Nice Tofu!

Next week here is Paleo. One of the greatest music festivals in the world. There I will finally get to see Fatboy Slim live!

[DarthTofu]

Just in case any of you want to make plans to spend more time on the end Internet as a result of this, I'll go ahead and let you all know that tomorrow I head off to college for the Fast Track Calculus program, which will likely occupy a significant chunk of my time for the next five weeks, leaving me effectively on hiatus for the next month-and-some-change. That may or may not change depending upon how tough the course work is/if I'm still as good at Calculus as I used to be, but we'll see.

 

I'm all packed, I broke up with my girlfriend (not as awkward as I'd expected it would be, as she'd had the same thoughts), and all that's left to do is wake up in five hours and head for Indiana. So goodbye for now, guys. It's been a pleasure.

 

- Tofu

[Mad78]

The Force will be with you Tofu, always.

[Krytos]

Good luck Tofu, and enjoy yourself. Also, make sure to drop by every now and again to say hi and let us know what you've been up to. Heck, as annoying as you are, you'll be (slightly) missed

[Darth_Rob]

Good luck out in the college world dude! Just dont be a fool like me and spend the next nine years there!

[DarthTofu]

So I'm still alive, and I got my laptop (else I'd not be able to write this to you). Fast Track Calculus is a lot like an analogy. Okay, that made no sense, but oh well.

 

Presently it's Friday night. We're not allowed to do homework for all of Friday afternoon, because we spend the whole of the week (and a large chunk of the weekend) working on it. It's very, very intense- we've gotten through everything that Calc I would have consisted of if we were going through college. That's a quarter's worth of work compressed neatly into five days of hell. The day goes a lot like this: 1) Go to bed (optional.) (You're still up after midnight working on homework. Five or six folks had to pull all-nighters last night). 2) Wake up at around 7:00 in the morning. 3) drag yourself over to the dining hall to eat breakfast and hopefully contact your mouth with your spoon or fork. 4) Go to class. Get lectured at. Do homework. Get lectured at some more. Do some more homework. 4) Go to the dining hall for lunch. 5) Come back to the classroom to continue working on homework. 6) Go to problem sessions, where you find out how you did on the previous night's/this morning's homework. 7) Work on homework some more. Go to dinner. 9) Come back to the dorm hall. Continue doing homework. Repeat

 

Despite that, I've been having some fun. There are 53 other Fast Track students, some of whom are international. Simon, Yile, and Victoria, all of whom are from different parts of China, are all some of the nicest people I've ever met- and that includes the Midwesterners here, who have a reputation for ridiculous levels of politeness. Everyone here is easy to get along with, and the mutual suffering of staying up until three or so in the morning and needing them to help you with your homework (and them needing you to help them with their homework) builds bonds quickly. There are a few folks who I don't particularly enjoy the company of (personality lacking, or else just obnoxious (Moreso than me,even!)) but not to the point where I can't work with them, or actually dislike/hate them.

 

Like I said- the work is intense... and Maple 13 (our calculus program that we have to use for all of our homework) is rather evil. I've renamed it "Bitchweed 13," as it doesn't remind me of a Maple tree in the least, but more of a weed... combined with a swearword that won't upset too many people. The assignments have thus far varied from 23 problems- the first assignment- to 51 problems (our weekend assignment). It doesn't sound that bad, but a typical problem has three parts, so multiply everything by about three and you have a slightly better estimate of the workload. And keep in mind that you're projecting vectors onto one another, finding the equations of planes, optimizing stuff, etc. Oh, yes- and fighting Maple code to make it actually plot your stuff for you.

 

But it's going to be worth it- 20% done. I'll probably try to post regularly on Friday nights (after I've contacted my family for what promises to be a weekly catch-up conversation), but no promises. Hope everyone's doing well.

 

-Tofu

[Mad78]

I don't know how you do it Tofu. But just hang in there.

[Darth_Rob]

Wow, that sounds rough dude, but it also sounds like you're enjoying the pluses of college life. Keep up the good work!

[Krytos]

Good work Tofu, one of the most import things in tertiary studies is a good work habbit and getting your study/homework done ASAP. It'll pay off in the long run, not only with better marks but you wont have days you'll be forced to rush your arse off to get something done you should've finished a long time ago (been there ) and it'll also mean you probably wont miss out on big events

[DarthTex]

Good luck Tofu. Post when you can.

[DarthTofu]

Sorry to be late posting, but college is a rather awesome and new experience... slash I finally installed and started playing Half Life 2. I spend my fifteen minutes before class starts playing that stupid game- took me forever and a day to get out of stinking Ravenholm...

 

Anyway, in the real world, things are pretty interesting. I've found out that racketball is really popular among the other Fast Track Calculus students, which is awesome, because I'm a big fan of the game myself. I played for a few hours today, and had a blast with it. It's nice to be off of the island, because some of the people here are a lot better than my old racketball contacts. I'm still pretty much undefeated, unless you count a pity match I gave a kid after winning three in a row before that (I literally gave him some of my points).

 

Anyway, weeks 2 and 3 have seen considerably easier homework assignments. Last week I was finishing up around ten at night, which I considered a godsend after the long amounts of time I had to stay up for the first week. This week is only two days in, but both days have seen us finishing up some time around three or four in the afternoon. I'm enjoying the free time- I swap it out between playing sports, cards, and Half Life 2... and correcting a few homework assignments. For some reason, they don't like my variable names here. I generally name them "one," "two," "three," etc. Works fine for me, because there's a series of steps that I have to take that stick in my head each time I do a problem, but they apparently bork everyone else up when they look through my code. I'm gonna have to start being more creative.

 

Anyway, today has another interesting footnote. Anybody know who the Indianapolis Colts are? They're a professional (American) football team, and are all paid ridiculous amounts of money to play the sport. Anyway, they do what constitutes Summer Training on the Rose-Hulman campus, which we were originally bummed about (go figure, nobody who's into Calculus cares about professional sports teams), but now find awesome. Sure, they have half of the dining hall curtained off so that we can't even see them. Sure, they took over more than half of the parking lot. Sure, we can't use all of the gym at any given time because they're almost always in there. Sure, they make fun of us while we play racketball if they happen to be walking by the massage tables.

 

But you know what? We get all of their leftover food the day after. Dinner tonight consisted of our choice of the usual hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches and the like (which some fools still chose), turkey legs covered in barbeque sauce that were about two-and-a-half feet long and six inches in diameter, or lobster tail. Day-old, sure, but it's freaking lobster tail and massive, prehistorically-large turkey legs. I had one of the turkey legs (I'm from Florida- lobster's not that big of a deal) and had to stop halfway through- there was that much meat. I gave a man award to Jack Pringle, wo managed to polish off a lobster tail and a full turkey leg, plus a side of broccoli, all by himself.

 

Anyway, that's what's going on. Hope you're all doing well.

[Evaders99]

Mmmm lobster... I want to be where you are

[Krytos]

Ah, hl2, love that game. Be sure to get Episodes 1 and 2. 2 is by far the better episode, experimenting with new game play and adding to the story line. Episode 1 felt like a 3rd party extension to the hl2 story just to keep it moving. Both have an awesome thing where you can play the game with commentary, really cool feature that's worth playing with (keep in mind though, if you're playing for achievements (which I decided to do all of for Episode 2, including taking that god damn gnome all the way from the start to the end of the game) commentary mode stops you getting achievements). Oh, and get portal, many funs too.

 

I like Jack's work. Never let Lobster go to waste ... or Turkey. Bugger the broccoli

[DarthTofu]

Heh- I got The Orange Box, which includes HL, HL Ep 1, HL Ep. 2, Portal, and TF2. All sorts of fun.

 

This week was (reportedly) the easiest. Next week is supposed to be a bit tougher, and then the last week is nothing (I suppose so that people who have have performed unsatisfactorily up until this point have a chance to improve their work and study skills and still pass the course). Ah, well- I'll likely go into lurk mode a while longer. Be sure to let us know when you head of to the Uni, Mad!

[Mad78]

As things stand I have still to decide to which Uni I will be going. I spotted a nice one in Melbourne and one that doesn't look too bad in London but I still need to check a few other countries.

[Darth_Rob]

Im hijacking this thread again to announce that I am FINALLY graduating this weekend. After nine years of college (yes, I was in college for almost a decade...but I got four degrees out of it!) I am finally finished, as this Sunday I will be snagging a Masters in Education. By January, once all the paperwork and other bureaucratic nonsense is finished up, I will be officially certified to teach Social Studies to 7-12th graders in NY.

 

Now for the fun part...finding a teaching job in the middle of the school year...

[Evaders99]

Congrats - you really didn't want to get a job did you?

Now it's a great time to be looking for one lol

[DarthTofu]

Best of luck to you, Rob. And props, for being able to say that college was the best 9 years of your life, thus one-upping Van Wilder.

[Mad78]

Well done mate!

Hopefully the job market ain't as bad as it is here.