O dear.

So I'm sitting by this guy in the library right now who is snoring....while he is still awake. I've made sure of that fact by stealing surreptitious glances in his direction when I hear a huge snort just to confirm that he is indeed awake.

I had to move from my nice table with the comfortable chairs to the snoring boy because the 3 individuals who joined me were too loud and obnoxious. I really wonder if each generation after each are indeed deteriorating in terms of ethics, and morals. Standard courtesies of keeping quiet in the QUIET area of the library should be something that is inherently ingrained in each individual....right?

Well, just an update on school and stuff I suppose. I got pretty sick the first two weeks of school and fell quite a bit behind. As a result of that, and because of my low confidence level in all things qualitative, I decided to drop my statics class. While the notion of having no midterms of finals is definitely appealing, I don't know how much time I could have had to study for weekly quizzes which will make up my final grade. The odds didn't seem like they were in my favor.

So, I'm down to three classes; Physics II, Chemistry, and Calculus III. I just took my Calc test last week and I am happy to say that I made the right decision to drop the statics class. This professor is really hard core, doesn't allow formula sheets, and the 3-dimensional concepts and material is hard for my tiny brain to comprehend. I studied over 20 hours for that test...and will find out how I did in 30 minutes, but the fact that all those hours went into that one specific test has made me question my efficiency and prowess at academics. I feel like people in my class who studied 5 hours or less probably did the same as myself, if not better. How depressing!


Anyway. I'm trying to not be as uptight as I was last semester, but I fear that as a result of that my grades will plummet significantly. I am considering joining the student chapter of ASME and AIAA. They both have pretty cool projects they want to work on, such as the human powered vehicle for ASME, and the Design Build Fly competition for AIAA. I don't know which one I want to do yet, but am leaning towards AIAA because they are more organized, and the competition in April is in my parent's state! Or maybe I won't participate in any of them.

Seriously?

So with Serena Williams and her obscene words and conduct; Kanye West with his ridiculous behavior; and most infamous of all (in my opinion), Joe Wilson accusing the President of lying in a Congress session, I really wonder what's going on in the world sometimes.

This is especially true in the classrooms and my interactions amongst my fellow students. Most of the time I just sit there and think, "Seriously?!".

For example, today in my Physics II class, this scenario unfolded:

Classmate A (Male): Oh ya man. My statics professor is a great professor. He says s*** all the time!

Um, what? When does having a professor who demonstrates his ability to curse deem him a great professor? How about because he possesses an amazing teaching ability, or that he really takes the time and effort to know the student?

Also, another example. I was talking to a lab partner who is also a male, and we were discussing in our group of three what classes we are taking this semester. He is taking a MATLAB class which is basically a programming class.

Lab Partner: I can't believe [for my class] we have to actually know how to program! I mean, remember last semester when our Physics Prof gave us a sheet with code on it and all we had to do was input it and run it? Well for this class we have to write the stuff ON the sheet! We have to MEMORIZE how to structure everything, and if there's one mistake the program doesn't work! Isn't that ridiculous?

No, not really. Isn't that why it's called a programming class? I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh on my fellow classmates (I don't think so), but I think they're really ridiculous, and rather immature. And it makes this whole process even more grueling than it already is.

CSU is rubbish

I suppose I can't speak for the other branches of the CSU system, but CSUN is rubbish. I suppose an average school falls prey to mediocrity when their funds are drastically cut by the state.

The process of going back to school has painfully slapped me in the face with why school sucks, more specifically, why returning to school as a working adult sucks even more than when you're 17. Here's a short list:

1. Taking completely worthless filler "elective" classes that have nothing whatsoever to do with my major and waste time, energy, and money.

2. Not being able to get into core classes for your major because of one of the following(I might have had personal experience with these...maybe):

• state budget cuts resulting in even fewer classes offered


• the professor is the only person who can add you to their open class, however their e-mail inbox is full and they don't attend their own office hours

3. The biggest irony of all: being approved for Calculus which is stupendous, yet being forced to take PreCalc because there aren't any open Calc classes

4. Being so far away from even beginning to see the light of MechE classes that you feel like quitting. In short, I have to take at least a year's worth of pre-reqs to even get into a MechE class and what if I don't like it then? I wasted a year in school, basically.

5. Dragging yourself out of bed to attend your conveniently scheduled Mon-Friday 50 minute class only to have a fire alarm go off 20 minutes into it and cancel class. Totally worth it.

6. Realizing once again that you aren't actually learning anything in class--that you in fact are the one teaching yourself everything in a time-controlled learning situation. I firmly believe that I can teach myself a number of subjects and what I can't solely teach myself I can learn from tutelage.

I'm almost considering applying to a different school but there's no guarantee that it'll be significantly better at say, UCLA for instance. All I know is that I sincerely detest going to school everyday and I don't possibly comprehend how I'll be able to finish an actual semester like this.