Am I a dork or what?

I just ordered this shirt.

I'm going to be a Math Major, I guess I've got to find great humor in things like this.

Plus, imaginary numbers really ticked me off with I learned them. OMG!!! What a freakin' mess? It really makes me wonder about the people who created/discovered/invented/smoked crack while they did it. I really consider imaginary numbers as some seriously messed up. you-know-what. Really.

But I'll be wearing this shirt with pride. Wagering is welcome... How long will it take me to wear this shirt to my math class? It's a M-F class (super yuck). I'll be begin posting about fall semester tomorrow. I've already received 3 out of 5 book orders I placed on Saturday. Classes start in 5 days!!! wooo-hooo!

Should Math be this much fun?

I am really having fun with Pre-Calculus!!! I just love the feeling when I "get it". I'm cranking out the right answers left and right, my graphing calculator and I are the best of friends... this is FUN!

Damn! If I knew this would be so much fun, I would have done this years ago. Also, as a disclaimer I should mention that I had a Red Bull late this afternoon to help me with my studies tonight. I swear, it works, it helps me wonders. Summer classes, even just two, have been harder to juggle than I thought it would be. I've just been so tired at the end of the day with the two kids and their bickering and whatever activities we've been part of during the day.

I had to move out of my fabulous chair, my regular study spot. My legs got sunburned today and the very warm laptop even with some insulation between, made me WAY too warm. I'm now at the kichen table with the heat of my laptop well spaced away from my legs AND a fan blowing cool air above me.

It is getting a bit late, I'm running out of steam a little bit, plus I opened a beer for a refreshing beverage when I moved out here to the kitchen. Kinda made myself wind down for the evening. I feel I got lots done though. :D

Summer Semester - week 1

I have this horrible horrible tendency to totally freak out the first week of classes. My stress level is through the ROOF and I seriously doubt my ability to learn anything at all.

Arghh!!!!!!! When will I learn to take the proverbial chill pill BEFORE classes start? This is the 4th semester I've begun, and I do this same thing to myself every time.

I've just got two classes going on this summer. History and Algebra. The History is a continuation of what I've taken before, American History since 1877. And the Algebra is my very first EVER college level math class.

My history class is quite different than the previous class I had. Definitely not a lame instructor here. There's no textbook in fact and no tests. Only 100points total for the class and they all come from essay question quizzes that will we have each week. The quizzes are due each Friday (god, I loved the Sunday night due dates, Friday kind of blows). We'll see how this instructor is... I just kind of slapped stuff together for the first two quizzes. He may rip those to shreds and that would be deserved. I'll be okay with C or D grades for the first round. At least I'll learn what exactly he's after. We'll see. I'm anxious to see how slow/fast this instructor is with getting grades back to us. Again, if his standards are HIGH high High and he's going to preface every sentence about expectations with "you're in college now"... I will want to hold him to similar expectations. gahhh... it's only fair.

Math: I've just finished up my first batch of homework. It wasn't too hard, as long as you don't count the hour I spent on one problem. I would swear to god that my new graphing calculator (the TI-83+) smokes crack. It was just being insane and not doing what the "TI-83+ Graphing Calculator for Dummies" book was telling, or the text book or the class videos. The machine was just being loony and I was about to cry it just wasn't working. So after nearly an hour of this, I gave myself permission to just SKIP that question. Jeeze, I should make myself skip troublemakers after 15-20 minutes max. I had four sections of math to get done, it was only my goal to get 3 done, but I actually pushed through and got all four done.

My goal for the coming week will be to do the practice exercises for each section and do the practice quiz/test for Module One. That will be due in 8 days. Plenty of time. There's weird stuff too I haven't read over yet for the class, like the dropbook. I need to read about that. I guess we need to show our work for a few problem per section. Yippee... and then there's the stupid discussion. I will talk about my calculator smoking crack when I'm not around and I'll recommend the "For Dummies" book for specific calculators.

Two weeks ago I got three novels out of the library. I've barely started one. I'm still not even halfway through the Andrew Jackson biography I'm still interested in, and I have another novel given to me by a friend I want to read. Its from an author I've heard great great things about, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There's a few books of his I definitely want to read. This one I have, The Autumn of the Patriarch isn't very long. I look forward to Love in the Time Cholera and One Years of Solitude.

Time... I really need time. I often think of sleep, and doing without. But then I've read about how the government has REALLY studied this issue as well. With the space program, they wanted to get the absolute MOST out of the astronauts they were sending into space... initially they hoped the astronauts could work work work the entire time they were up there. Well, it just simply turns out humans NEED to sleep. Bummer - because that would really be a nice chunk of time to get things done. :D

Speech Grades

$%^*&(&%@$!$$^%&(()*()*&)^&$%#$@!#$^%&%*^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's a string of pseudo-cuss words. So my lovely hard-ass speech instructor didn't give us grades for our last two major speeches. Simply bitchiness was her excuse. So she tells the class we can contact her and find out after she completes the grades. So I approached her after class and got her cell phone number. No big deal, she's offered that to the class several times on an individual basis. So she gives me her cell phone number, SHE WRITES IT DOWN FOR ME, and invites me to call her after Monday. No big deal

So Monday afternoon rolls around and that number she gives me doesn't work!!!!! I tried several times with no luck. Some weird message saying I entered the wrong code or that I mis-dialed. WTF? I've tried here and there over the previous few days and same thing. Chris, my husband thinks its hilarious, that she gave me a fake number - referencing a Seinfeld episode where Elaine gives out a wrong number on purpose. ughhhhhhhhhh...

I'm just pissed. I want those grades. Yes, I got an A in the class, but I still want feedback on all of my major speeches. This totally blows. I emailed her... we'll see if she ever responds... I doubt she will.

#$%^#$^&%^&$#%^#@$%^$&$%.... more cussing.

Final Grades - Spring 08

Well, today was the day... final grades came out. I felt that two classes were **close** to being B's but could very well have gone to A's - AND THEY DID!!!

Four A's and one B! and I don't think that B really counts because it wasn't an undergraduate class, it was a get-up-to-college-level-remedial class.

I'm very proud of myself and I don't think I could have done this without the help of Red Bull. Perhaps I didn't go back to school before was because Red Bull wasn't in the US when I was in school previously. Read about its origins here.

Yay Me! I feel like anything is possible now! I did so well with my first full load of college!

Now to decide what I'll do this summer. I'm still torn between 2 or 3 classes. Microeconomics is the one I'm the fence about. Still time to decide.

Spring Semester is over... so I cleaned

Testing Center Nightmare

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! God damn I'm pissed!

These ladies who work at the testing center at my school are UN-freakin'-believable. Its the testing center, there are signs all over the place that say "shhhhhhhh" and what do they do? They talk and laugh, and people come by to talk to them where they laugh and talk even louder. And their laughs... OMG, it's loud and cackling... part of my head still hurts from hearing it. Honestly.

I felt that I was going okay on my math final, and I had mentally prepped myself for taking my time and thoroughly working through all the mutliple choices for the problems and then going back over everything, and really just being very careful and thorough. This stuff was not hard, I had a good handle on ALL of it in my practice and actual work up to that point.

But.

Those ladies made it freakin' impossible to stay in there one minute longer. Yes, its bad in the moment, but I was so ANNOYED at the scene that I had to get out of there for my own mental health.

There are signs on the door from the actual testing area to the reception area, that say very BIG, please keep the door shut... and do you think think these ladies keep that door shut as THEY come and go? NO! So, even when they're talking in normal voices, which I realize they have to as they sign in people coming in, they can be heard.

This is just horrible. I was determined to complain to someone. This is not the first time this has happened... its happened too many times. So when I left the testing center, which is basically its own two rooms in the corner of the library, I went to the library desk and asked who was in charge of the testing center. The person I asked, pointed inside, "the woman in the blue shirt" argh..... I'm not going to complain to HER, she's in there and freakin' clueless. So I ask, "who's HER supervisor?" and it was a nice woman in a yellow shirt and I explained how awful they are and inconsiderate blah blah blah, and she expressed concern, there have been problems before and they've been talked to before about this same shit. Argh. I was exasperated but tried very hard to be calm and not as pissed off as I otherwise felt.


I did LOUSY on my math final. I can't totally blame those ladies, but they did not help one bit. So it's kind of a mixed bag for me... being pissed off mad, or being down on myself for doing such a shit job on this test. :(