Work Tomorrow

Summer students are dumb. (Most of them, anyways.)

So my first year at Caltech is over.

It's very surrel. It doesn't feel right to not have sets due every week.

It's 2 AM, I can't sleep, I have to get up to go to work tomorrow.

Today I laid out in Excel my next three years of classes, if I'm still at Caltech. It's not pretty.

Next year there are a few classes I decided were pertinent to alternative energy and environmental studies. I'm going to take Chemistry 41abc, a three term course on organic chemistry. I'm also going to take Geology 11abc, a three term intro course to earth sciences. Also, I decided I wanted to take Electrical Engineering 5, an introduction to embedded systems course. This class looks awesome.

This course is intended to give the student a basic understanding of 
the major hardware and software principles involved in the specifica- 
tion and design of embedded systems. Topics include basic digital 
logic, CPU and embedded system architecture, and embedded systems 
programming principles (events, user interfaces, and multitasking).

I also want to take Computer Science 1, an intro to CS using scheme, a dialect of Lisp. This all sounds reasonable, right? Four classes I want to take? Well, let's add in core for sophomore year: Physics 2ab and Math 2ab. Statistics, quantum, waves, differential equations, probability. Seriously. Who gives a fuck?

So there's the problem. Six difficult classes. CS1 has quizzes and labs each week, Ma2a and Ph2a have sets every week, Ch41 meets at 9 AM, there are in class quizzes, and sets every week (as far as I know). Then there is Ge11. Oh yeah, and ACM 11, a practical intro to Mathematica and Matlab. That's only a 3 unit class.

So if it's a 3 unit class, it should only take 3 hours/week. Well, I'm trying to learn to program, and to do so I've been working through a three unit class that has lecture notes and assignments online. CS 11: C track. It's an intro course to the C programming language. There are labs due each week, so each one should take 3 hours... The first lab took three or four hours, as expected. Lab 2 took about 8 hours. Lab 3 took about 12 hours of work. I've been thinking about Lab 4 quite a bit, but I haven't sat down to start it yet, I don't think 2 + 3 were anomalies.

The unit system and I are not compatible.

So if I study CS here, I have 54 units/term sophomore year, 45/term junior year, and less senior year. I've never successfully passed all of my classes when I've had more than 36 units. This is a problem, when I'm looking at six more terms with more than this many units... 36 is the minimum you can take and still be considered a full time student.

I need to leave. But where? Caltech is a really good school, I could fight it out... then again, there are other good schools. But Stanford doesn't want me. What would financial aid be like in the UC system? Would MIT be any better? Ivy league transfer... forget it. Vassar said no. That leaves big public universities. Would the education be as good? Do I care if it's not as good?

In some twisted way, it's easiest to stay here. I just have to keep my mind of classes I don't care about, not about issues like happiness or quality of education. Transferring is difficult. You have to do applications, you have to move all your stuff, it would just be a big pain in the ass.

I don't know, but I think complaining helps.

This is all rational, fact, truth stuff about next year. What about this year? How am I different?

I can solve a Rubik's cube

Hurray! You're a huge dork!

I have lots of trouble staying on a normal sleep schedule and eating properly. I worry about lots of things, minor things like laundry, big things too. I fidget. I'm nervous around people.

I'm much, much better at algebra and thinking without my TI-89

I've said all of this before, I know, I know.

I've grown out of contact with almost all of my old friends from Rapid City

Hi y'all!

My physical condition and self confidence have deteriorated

For four days out of the last week, I woke up at 6:30ish and went for a two mile run. Being on a reasonable sleep schedule feels really good, and I might be able to do that now that it's summer. But, now it's 3 AM, I'm not going to be able to anytime soon...

I know a little about a lot of topics, thanks to Caltech

AIDS, math, electrical engineering, chemistry, physics, the common cold, lockpicking, programming, evolution, seasons, particle accelerators, the search for extrasolar planets.