Well the epic May 09 trip has finally begun. I'm on the train going
from San Diego to LA. The train in LA will be a lot more comfortable.
Caught this one at 6:45 this morning. Thanks to my ride who got up
really early to take me!!
Got a house/pet sitter so not worried about home.
I'm going to at least try to blog this trip.... Well see how well
that works
Sent from my iPhone
My physics class was officially posted today and all of my requirements for my degree have been filled! Assuming I finish the class I'm currently in of course.
Announcements have been ordered and should be here by next week at the latest. Graduation dinner venue is reserved, working on the meal selections but really need the RSVP's to do that officially.
All plane etc tickets for this May thing have been purchased, just missing my dress and shoes for the wedding. And then making sure I have enough and appropriate clothing of course, and paying to check luggage, but those are doable.
This is kind of all coming together.
Starting to apply to jobs, I need a code example which I'm working on. This last class is going, we're a bit pressed for time but it's doable, I have a great team. I did finances today and I have a bit of breathing room before I'm out of student loan money, though the sooner I start working the better, I can use the rest of the student loan money to pay off some debt. Student Loans are paid off right before mortgages so I don't have problem using that money against other debt.
I think I'm going to work on a connect four type of game, we'll see how I do. Suddenly it's somehow April and I don't have much done, these past few months have gone REALLY fast.
Finally decided on a place.
Rock Bottom in La Jolla
I just emailed their events lady to make an appointment to talk about specifics, but it's a relief to have picked a place.
Once it's official I'll order the graduation announcements. Now I just need interviewing clothes....
Almost done!
I realized I haven't posted much at all lately, nothing that exciting is really going on. Working on my last class, looking for a job, walking the dog, these things take up most of my days.
I ordered my cap and gown, I've paid my 'graduation fee' and ordered my graduation tickets. Only six and they claim they don't have extras, I'll have to check on that.
I do need to check on my last transfer class, they have the transcript it just takes time. Once Physics is accounted for I"m good to go!
I picked out which announcement I want, the ones the school is offering I don't have a choice on what is printed inside and theirs is stupid. I even called the company and they can't change it, it's lame. So I'm getting third party ones, nice quote on the front, simple and yet still a little girly...
Anyway now I have to decide what to put inside. I"m open to suggestions!
Also I need addresses. That is my big project this month, making sure I have everyone's address. Also I want addresses of people you know that I may want to send announcements to. This is a pretty big deal, I'm kind of really proud of this so I want to stand up on the rooftop and shout!
Don't post addresses here but email them to me. I think you can do that from here, if not message me and I"ll give you my email (if you don't have it).
Now to make spreadsheets of addresses!! I"m a nerd
So I'm trying to not wait until the last min and get all my graduation stuff done early. Announcements are the most time consuming so I go there first. NU contracted with a place to do their announcements so I go there and check it out. It's awful, the wording is tacky, it actually says, on the announcement something about how this isn't a ticket to the graduation.
I only get six tickets to my graduation, why the hell would I want something like that sent to all the people I"m sending announcements to?? My University has to main campuses that do graduation, the one here and the one in Sacramento, and Sac's doesn't say that.
So I call the company, Jostens and talk to a very nice man who agreed with me completely that the wording was terrible. However the University picks out the wording and normally it can't be changed. He's going to have the rep talk to the University and see if we can at least take the 'this is not a ticket' nonesence out but he said he's tried and the past and normally the University doesn't allow it.
I"m on hold with them right now about my cap and gown, that isn't up on their site yet either, and I have literally no interest in a class ring, so unfortunately they're going to lose my business through no fault of their own if they can't get this changed.
So, chances are I'm going to have to find someplace else to do this announcement. That isn't' a huge deal, though the stuff found with an initial Google search were horrible, but then I don't get the NU logo embossed, or at least not easily and most likely not cheaply.
I've also sent an email to the University as there is another place to get diploma frames that I liked better than the ones offered on Josten's site.
Just annoying
My GPA is final, if we go by my major gpa it's a 3.4 and I"m happy with that.
I'm in my final class but to be honest it's a total and complete waste of time so I don't even really want to talk about it. Just hoops to jump through so I can get the damn diploma. Sad really, this could have been really helpful but it's just stupid.
So I've applied for graduation, I've ordered my tickets. I tried to order my announcements but the online place doesn't seem to be ready for us yet. I need to do that and order my cap and gown. Sent my mom the link for the diploma frame.
Now I need to find hotel rooms for the myriad of family coming into town and figure out where to have my big dinner. Apparnetly my family actually kind of likes me so more are coming that I had anticipated so Ruth Chris is out. I'm seriously considering a BBQ in someone's backyard at this point in time =)
I'm going to put all single people of my own generation at my place, we'll get air mattresses and bunk up like the good friends we are, the old people will need rooms but I can minimize that as much as possible saving more and thus giving me more money for the dinner. I wish I could put everyone up but that isn't going to happen, so we do hotels.
Graduation is downtown so there is possible public transportation, but my mom will be bringing her minivan and my aunt will rent a car so hopefully we'll be alright there. It's at the convention center so there is public transportation available if we need it. I only get six tickets though so I don't know how that will work out. Would be silly for people to come all this way to not be able to go, though they could go to the beach while I do the sillyness. Maybe I could go to the beach instead of the sillyness??
My last undergraduate grade came in and it's an A! This gives me an undergraduate GPA of 3.390, not with honors but I'm pretty damn proud.
There is still one missing assignment for this class but I don't have a clue on how to do it so I just emailed my professor telling him that. We'll see what he comes up with, but beyond that I'm done!!
Next class starts on Tuesday, it will be strange to be going to class on Tuesday and Thursday nights again. However it's the final senior project and is pass/fail so the grade I get this month is my last graded undergraduate class. About freaking time!
So until I hear back from the professor I'm going to enjoy the 70+ degree weather and quite possibly start on my garage. Or just screw around, which seems more likely.
My professor only required me to do half the final and the rest for extra credit so I've turned in at least that and now it's back to the paper.
However I"m taking the rest of the night off and I'll dive back into the paper tomorrow.
Got almost all of my transportation for the epic May thing done, still need to do the Graduation arrangements but at least I have plane tickets.
Bit less stress is a good thing.
It's been a few weeks, kind of been doing school and nothing else.
Almost done with my last real class, got my final exam today and it looks doable. Have a paper that is about 3/4 written and then an Expert Systems thing to do and six more days to do it in, but it's not impossible.
This class is hard, Artificial Intelligence Programming, but it's fascinating. Haven't done much around the house since the roommates left, need to get on that, and need to finish making reservations for the trips this summer, but so far so good.
I emailed family but if anyone else wants to come to graduation let me know and I'll get out details. It's June 7th here in San Diego.
Back to school work!
Got an A in Artificial Intelligence! I put a lot of work into it so I'm very happy about that, and very happy with my professor for being a bit more accommodating to my schedule that he really had to be. That gives me a 3.36 GPA with only this one class left grade wise (the last two classes don't count towards my GPA).
So after two weeks of letting my brain rest and doing lots of non school type stuff I'm back, pretty much non stop till May 2nd when I'm done! Even with another A this month I won't get a 3.5 but I'm fine with 3.3 to 3.4. I've ordered the new textbooks for this class, it's called "AI Programming" which should be pretty intense.
One paper (at least) and I have my first few assignments, big assignments, but I'm actually pretty excited. I really needed that break!
Roommates are pretty much out, Salvation Army is coming to pick stuff up any min. I'm not nearly done re-arranging things but I'll work on it as time goes on. My goal is a min of 5 to 6 hours of real school work a day, adding to that if I need to, taking Sunday off and possibly Saturday if I feel comfortable. That is still less than a full time job so maybe I'll extend it, but it's time to get focused and learn this stuff.
So I'm all rambling but very excited!!
After almost 15 years the Kitchen Aid mixer has finally died. It only has two speeds now, really really fast so the flour ends up all over the kitchen, and labored I think it may explode. So I found the new fancy one on sale and ordered it. More than I wanted to spend but I figure if this one lasts me another 15 years it's more than worth it.
Poor mixer, lots of bread, cookies, a ton of pretzels and quite a few pizzas, he served me well. Now Good Will gets him.
He took pity on me and changed some stuff around. I have one paper in and am (sort of) diligently working on my final exam. I've given myself until Sunday to finish this and then I'm off to Sedona for a week. That gives me a whole other week to just chill out and do stuff around the house.
My roommates are moving out, one will be gone by the new year and the other by the end of Jan. I may have another roommate soon, I'll talk about it if it really happens, but that means I'll take that week to repaint that room and clean the carpets. I also get to reorganize the kitchen and the garage! I may steal a friend with a pick up and get him to run a bunch of crap to the dumb, it will be the perfect time to do that. I bet with a promise of lunch he'll do it :)
So I can do this, working on the final, want to have min half of it done before I goof off tonight. That gives me two days to do the second half, and since I"m doing the easy stuff first the time frame is actually reasonable.
I just sent my professor a big old email telling him that this 30 page paper isn't going to happen. I feel like he's asking me for graduate level work when I first started learning about this stuff three weeks ago, and I really want the two week break I'm supposed to get at the end of the year. I'm frazzled and fried and we do this again in January.
Maybe that makes me not as capable as other students but I really don't want to fail this class and I really really want to learn this stuff, but I can't write a journal level paper in a few weeks on a subject I've never seen before, it's just not going to happen.
We'll see what he says, I'm still not completely finished with the first paper, though all I'm missing is the tic-tac-toe game, which is done except for the AI part. You know, the whole point, but the rest is done and works!
This class is supposed to end a week from today though he seems willing to extend it to the end of the month. The problem with that is that I have been non-stop in school since July and I really need those two weeks. I have him again in Jan for the Advanced AI class, and I shudder to think what that is going to entail if he wants journal level papers for the introduction class, but I'll deal with that next month.
I really want this class to be finished a week from today and then take two weeks to just relax and recharge. That means getting that game working and doing this really huge final, but that is part of what I signed up for. I mean the first question on his final was the big project the last time this class was taught at NU. I don't think that question is going to get an answer to be honest, but it's only 10 points and the rest seems doable.
So maybe this means I can't 'hack' it but I just can't do this, not at this level and not in the time available. Maybe if this wasn't my first course in the subject but yah, not going to happen.
We'll see what he says, but for now I'm going to try to get this program working and start on that final.
I haven't written a real program since February and it's showing. It's something I really need to do pretty much every day. I know what I want to do, it's the actual implementation that is giving me fits. I'm glad I'm doing this before the big senior project though, hopefully I'll be back into the habit again by then.
The second AI class is approved for January, same professor. Be prepared for just as much stress but I won't have Physics class to compete with my attention and hopefully will have more of a clue.
Turned in a rough draft for my fist paper and I have my final exam, even though it's not due till the 31st. Looking over it, some I can do right this moment, which is encouraging, and of the rest, all but one looks doable right now and the other one we'll see. I'm going to start on that tonight, doing at least the stuff I know.
Maybe I can do this =)
In case anyone is watching the news the F18 hit south of Miramar, I'm North, I didn't even hear it.
The pictures are scary as hell and all over the news, but myself and everyone I know are ok.
I'm done with Physics. Ok not really but I just did my last online problem, the lab on Tuesday doesn't get written up so it's just studying for the final on the 16th left. That is a big release of stress, so that helps :)
I extremely dislike the stereotype attention starved, usually a teenager, posting all of their woes on the internet looking for sympathy and drama. However the idea is that I'm supposed to be recording both the ups and downs here I go.
I don't know if I can do this. For the first time I'm really doubting my ability to finish this degree. I've got a 3.3 gpa so National seems to think I'm competent but I don't know if I can write these papers.
I've done all the things you're supposed to do when you're frustrated, I did my other class's homework, I took an evening totally off, hell I'm home on a Friday night, didn't even look to go out because I have to work on this.
I've not understood things before, the hardware circuit class or the Linear Algebra class, but this feels different. I'm reading and I am learning things I just don't know if I can produce what I'm required to produce.
So I take a deep breath and keep plugging along, that is the job, but yah, this one is really getting me down.
So this class isn't what I was expecting. I'm not programming at all, I'm writing papers. This is still a good thing, I'm trying to learn a lot, but it's a different format than I was expecting. Two papers in four weeks is a touch overwhelming and I don't feel like I have the fundamentals down at ALL so we'll see how this goes.
First paper is on Tic Tac Toe, which is more complicated than I would have thought. There are algorithms on how to determine what move the computer makes, and I've found examples etc. I figure my first paper will define what AI actually is and what it isn't. I will get a terminator reference in there =) Then talk about Tic Tac Toe and why it's a beginner type program. Then I think he wants me to find out what people are researching about it currently and I don't see that happening.
The second paper will be more complicated, about something that is more current (I think, I'm still a bit fuzzy). This is useful but I"m really not sure how to go about it.
Then I have a final exam and I have NO idea what would be on that since I'm not doing any programming or assignments. I'll talk to my professor about it after this first paper is done.
So I'm fleshing out my outline and trying to find sources. Still have Physics to do which isn't helping as I have to learn that stuff and get the homework etc done. That final is on the 16th and the final paper is due that weekend. Busy Busy December, but then I've got two weeks with no homework and I'm greatly looking forward to that. Just need to get the next two and a half weeks done and very productive.
