Coming Along

This was a pretty good week. I was able to catch up in all my classes, and I even got an A on my physics homework. I think things will be a little easier from now on if I stick the routine I've developed.

On Thursday, the TA of my Architecture and Society class took us students on a tour of the campus, schooling us in the history and design concepts behind some of the early UT buildings. I'm pretty sure that the ARC308 TAs are architecture grad students, so as I improve my grades I'm going to be hitting them up for advice and referrals for transferring into the School of Architecture.

A Smaller Cage

A Smaller Cage
by Tom MacDonald
2.24.09

the cat was stuck inside the room
he meowed for help within the gloom
but no one came to set him free
no savior bringing golden key

the cat contrived to fly the coop
by amassing lots of poop
a smell to signal passerbys
this was the plan he did devise

his master soon became aware
of such a reeking in the air
the cat was pleased to see his scheme
was working nicely, it would seem

but to the cat's utter chagrin
when Master finally burst in
it wasn't freedom that he brought
but a magazine, rolled and taught

Master took one look around
and saw the feces on the ground
he beat the cat with blinding rage
then put him in a smaller cage.

cats?... cats?? ....rraaAAr

My roommate abruptly informed me on Friday that a hand-me-down cat would be coming to live with us. I'm not a cat lover. One of my best friends from childhood had three cats: Fancy, an obese tabby, who when lying on her back would begin wheezing under the suffocation of her own fat; Bandit, a ferocious dog-fighting tomcat who frequently ravaged my unsuspecting socked feet; and Milo (or something), a decrepit old cadaver of a cat who spread a thin layer of brittle hair over everything he touched.

I hate the dander that animals invariably get on every object in the house, I hate having to them become living trip wires as I groggily move through the hall in the mornings, and I HATE how 95% of pet owners baby their animals instead of training them properly. At least I was able to cunningly convince my roommate to change the cat's name from "Frisky" to something less stereotypical. To be fair, "Bear", as he's now called, has actually made me smile a couple times this weekend. His curiosity is comical and it was pretty funny when he climbed into my open guitar case.

For better or worse I'll have to deal with the cat for the next few months. Anyways, here's some pics of "Bear".

Newton's Law of Embarassment

Well lucky for me, the class average for last week's physics test was around 35, so with the curve I ended up making a low C. I'm just going to have to shoot for a B in physics and make sure I get As in my other classes. Posting about my hardships in physics is getting pretty old, but I must mention one more thing that happened this week in lecture.

I was sitting in the front row of the lecture hall (aka hell's arena) thinking that I could soak up some extra understanding by being close to the Teach. An unused overhead projector on a desk between me and the teacher was blocking my view. I knew it had to be affecting other students as well, so - being the man of action that I am - I decided to do something about it. As the teacher wrote unintelligible symbols on the chalkboard and rambled on about god knows what, I got up and walked to the center of the floor to lower the projector. It wouldn't move. I tried harder, only to find that it resisted any force that I applied. I started trying to turn knobs, pop it with the palm of my hand in strategic locations, push, pull... no luck. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated and embarrassed, and involuntarily let out a furious curse under my breath.

Apparently the sounds made in the floor of a lecture hall carry, because from behind me I heard gasps/chuckles from around the auditorium and the teacher stopped her lecture and turned around. Giving me a look of both perplexity and horror, she calmly lowered the projector and I sat back down. From behind me the suppressed laughter and hushed comments continued. This wasn't the end of it though, because after the incident I realized that I had left my glasses and pencil by the projector. No way I was going back up there though, so I just brooded in my chair, blind and helpless for the rest of the lecture.

Damn This Class

I am becoming very incensed with my physics class. After taking today's GOV301 test (which seemed to go pretty well) I rushed over to the physics classroom to find that 90% of the other students had left their classes early and were already working on their physics tests. After plowing through a gauntlet of knees and dirty tennis shoes I squirmed into one of the auditorium seats designed for Chinese elementary school kids and looked at the tree-scab in front of me. 19 problems that could reasonably take a well-studied examinee ~2 hours I was expected to complete in 50 minutes. Needless to say I barely got through 4 problems before the professor started forcing the class out of the auditorium to make room for the next class. This is some serious bulldiarrhea.

Physics Troubles

General Physics 302k is destroying me. I must have put around 20 hours into this week's 21 basic homework problems and I still only got a 72 - exactly the class average. I need to find some help because my current grades are not going to be enough to ensure my acceptance to the School of Architecture next fall.

I also have a physics test tomorrow and a government 301 test - which I haven't been studying for due to the physics homework. Arrgg!! I want to hit physics in the face with a baseball bat and force a fat donkey to trample his groin*.

*physics' groin is made of two small pulleys and a spring

Building Selection Assignment

The MS Word version of this ARC301 assignment is much prettier and has pics but was apparently 'too big' for Googledocs to upload in its entirety. Google gives me 1Gb of Picasa space but less than 1000Kb for crappy doc conversion/upload? That just makes me want to puke all over your head, Sir.

Building Selection Assignment

Midnight Oil

4 am... done with paper... (gargling sound)

Lil Update

Dang life's been busy! As mentioned in the previous post, after seeking the exceptional advice of Liberal Arts councilor Kelly Strait, I changed my classes at the end of the first week to those that better fit my goals and GI Bill requirements. I am now taking Architecture & Society, General Physics +Lab, Anthropology, and Government. I love all these classes and look forward to going school each day, so I often find myself walking around with a big dumbass smile on my face.

One thing that has surprised me about attending UT thus far is how freaking hard the classes are! Individually they are no problem and even physics comes pretty easily to me, but keeping up with the work in all five of them is nuts! I basically go to school, study, and sleep - and I don't even sleep that much.

I'm trying to figure out a rhythm though, and today I received a boost in confidence when my UMUC pre-calculus final grade came in - 95 baby!