It is strange to think I haven't seen you in a month. I have seen the new moon but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises but nothing of your beautiful face. The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower, like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has vanished me to. We next compete in the city of Paris. I will find it empty if you are not there. Hope guides me, it is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time I look upon you. With all the love that I possess, I remain yours, the knight of your heart.
Stuffed in the room and attempted to study. After numerous failures, there are these two not too pretty girls came by asking me whether I wanted to go out for dinner. Oh well, since I know I wont be doing anything academically productive might as well…they just wanna take away and I have no problems about that. However, they wanted to walk there!! Hello, there’s a bus service and you wanna walk? After arguing for barely 1 minute, I gave up. It is just impossible to win in an argument with girls.
Well, the weather is 21C (69.8F), should be a nice weather. Maybe it is a nice day to walk afterall. On the way, we met lots of nice weather loving people- the tennis player, the patriotic Indian cricket players, more unknown cricket players…and we saw flowers budding too. Not that I haven’t seen a budding flower before but I cant get enough of this spring scenery. I regretted not bringing camera along. And the smell of green grass. Yes, the grass is growing. Well. Not too bad to lose a fight with a girl afterall.
I have spent 5 days of digital adventures with ancient swordsmen and really didn’t take much time walking around campus. Save the time enjoying the spring scenery. Spring break is THE perfect timing to get to places where it is usually crowded. Places like skating rings, the quad or maybe the music room. And I’d wasted half of it in with the moron swordsmen! Dang. After getting food, we went back, and I tossed a coin to decide whether to study or to watch A Knight’s Tale in their room. Well, it is a same two sided coin and the end result makes no difference. I joined the adventure with Ulrich von Lichtenstein.
The journey of food hunting thought me one thing. You’ll never really get to enjoy the scenery until someone unintentionally asked out to get out of your den. How many times I locked myself up in the stinking sweat-soaked cocoon dorm room and ignore the beautiful god’s creation outside? Like Roland and Wat, I toned down my goal and just contended with food and wine. I never look beyond what’s around me. I wonder do I need William in my life to force me think beyond my belly or when would I be him who eventually changed his star. They said the higher you aim the more pain you have to go through. Still, poor and rich alike, they will survive somehow and went into the same old dust. Is it worth the trouble then? I don’t know.
Next, should I be William, where are my Roland and Wat? Like all Disney cartoons, the heroes never travel alone- Aladdin has the monkey Abu and the blue crappy genie; Belle has the whole castle’s members with her; even mighty Hercules has Pegasus and the goat guy? (googling) oh ya, Philoctetes. I need my loyal and ever supportive companions, but first I need to learn to trust people. I don’t trust people easily and those that I trust I wont dump them easily, that’s just me. Trusting people is never easy. You need to tolerate their silliness and at the same time their peasant origin cant understand your knightly pride. But I believe such brotherhood will only get closer as you experience more troubles because then you’ll take off your angelic disguise and be a human- panic, fear, hot-tempered…will I be willing to act in a group? Or more relevant, will I dare to show my demonic side? I dont know.
Then, Adhemer. You will eventually encounter a messed up confusing kid whose job is to ruin your everyday life. He would think that he’s too smart and that never in your life you would beat him up. Like a dog in a manger, he wants everything you want, and thrash them afterwards. Isnt that annoying and really makes you wanna fong him up? But in real life, the story never always ends like Disney cartoons. You wont beat them just after one fall. It might takes years or your whole life to beat them up or worse, not beating them at all. Will I encounter these people? Should I saw them, will I run away and withdraw from the joust? I dont know.
Jocelyn, the supposedly most beautiful woman in Christendom. (me and my friend think that Kate is prettier) I dont know how these heroes always met up with pretty chic in their journey and it is love at first sight most of the time. Would they care that much if the girl is not cute? Nevermind their lusty chivalry attitude. (Protector of Italian Virginity my arse) The (not so) handsome heroes do not charmed them with any spells or magic. Rather, I guess, they are just confident and know what they are looking for and they never give up, like a hunter having his eyes on the foxy lady. (I dont speak on behalf of the males and females always have the right to say otherwise) Beginning is always the first sight and the ending is always caused by some misunderstanding/accident . It takes time to realize you cant live without someone. Like the movie and the crappy love letter, days just get more miserable without Jocelyn watching him jousting. Have I met my Jocelyn? Or have I missed it? Or am I waiting for Josephine? I dont know.
Lastly, the road home. Once you begin your journey, will you find your way home? Will you be so indulged in your new found glory (should you succeed) that you forgot that you are from the Cheapside? It is always very tempting to stay in the new world and not to think of the fate of those in your past. Now that I am nobody and I have no influence or whatsoever in the US, I would definitely say that I would want to contribute to my society and all those nonsense. What if I am best Chemical Engineer here and were given celebrity treatment. Will I give up such glory and go back as an unknown fella? And worst still back home, will they accept me and my values? Will I change so drastic that I forgot how to interact with my fellow countrymen? Until I begin the journey, I dont know.
For now, my belly is grumbling and I believe it is time to settle something urgent first. Those nonsense of being William, put it aside, even William cant starve himself everyday. This I know!!
I was really desperate. I have 2 more thermodynamic questions not able to solve, hoping that some miracles will happen by the next afternoon deadline that I will be inspired to finish it. Well, I know things wouldn’t happen this way. However, what else that I can do? Flipping through pages of lecture notes, textbooks and even googling (yes, google-ing) online but the brain just could not concentrate.
Not being able to solve homework problems had been a problem to me since the second semester. At first, I wanted to claim that it was not the quantity that daunted me; however, I would take back my words. Now that I think about it, what I hated most about college homework was their online feature, with the exceptions of paper/thesis writing.
No doubt that those freaking smart pre-programmed PC screen (IMAC users, please bear with me) would give you the answer as soon as you click ‘submit’. But these stupid piece of metals would only go as far as “You got 2 out of 5 correct answer” without proper explanation. The irony was that it tells you why you got it right when you got it right but left you clueless (they have useless hints) when you cant solve it. Oh god, if I know what the hell is wrong I wouldn’t be repeating the same questions again. And I got really mad and wanted to throw that PC out of my 2nd floor dorm window after 10 failures. My dorm has mosquito net so I cant just throw it like that.
I really think that the invention of online homework was really created out of pure and goodwill. However, I still prefer the traditional ones over the PC based assignments. The second reason apart from its disability to explain as requested, is the syntax. Most of the time, the syntax required of the math homework was keyboard-challenged for me. In one particular assignment, my wacko instructor left us with a question containing tones of unknown. 7 out of 9 spaces required such syntax…(1+x^2-2x^3)(3+3x^ 2)/((2x^3-2)(1+x^2-2x^3)( 3+3x^2)+(4x^3-2x^2-6)(x^3 )(3+3x^2)) how cool was that. And the chemistry homework...
So, let’s not whine about those hi-tech syntax and pointless feel good statements (ie Congratulation, you have completed chapter 1!). Since it is inevitable that we will be enslaved into the online homework system, let’s discuss some smart ways of dealing with it.Before we go into the strategy, we have to recognize the features of online homework. Here I would briefly enlighten you with the format that I encountered most in my field. Oh well, some of you might have better ways of doing it but this is just my way.
Firstly, there are MCQs. Well, you know how people breaks password with random numbers? It is the same way, just pick all possible combinations and surely one of them would fit in. To minimize number of trials, start with 2 (out of 4) or 3 (out of 5 or more) statements. Because that’s the majority answer would require you to pick 2 or more statement. Next, we’ll see the math fill in the blank type questions. Always try with ‘0’ first. Yes, fill in all the blanks with ‘0’s and see how far it will take you to. Then, if you are lazy in calculating, type it in formula. ie, given a = 5 and b = 4, hypotenuse = (5^2+4^2)^1/2, but it is more practical to get a TI-89 solver. However, that formula strategy would work best if you dont know what you are solving. Simply key in figures in the ‘you think it is that formula’ and try it out. Speaking about that, always have that master of all cheaters- TI-89 with you. You don’t need to know how to solve complicated integration or finding roots of n2 polynomials. It is also very useful for graphs unless your screwed up professor gives problems with some exceptions (i think it is (sin t)/t in which you have a non-continous point...whatever). Whatever you do, always save that webpage as the answer you keyed in might have evaporated after the site refreshed.
Those strategies works best for lone-rangers like me. For those who prefer to work in groups, the best way is each takes one questions and share the answer. You can always trade answers with other groups if you are business minded. However, knowing how smart your instructor is, I think (s)he would have 4 or more different sets of problem, so that you low class cheaters wouldn’t cheat. However, such cooperation might worth investing if you have a limited-trial homework problems. More of the programs would support formulas but some don’t. Again, get the TI-89 and pluck all relevant values and solve it for 4 different problem set.
Last but not the least, always believe that whatever you’d done, someone else had done it. Yes, there is an archive of cheat sites elsewhere. Just be patient and have faith that you would find it. It is a commonly circulation within those lazy bastards that you don’t want to get associated with. Try to bring them to pubs and make them confess when they are drunk. And try to do the community some good by creating more reference sites and update them regularly. Some of the cheat sites are just incomplete or merely outdated.
Last note, do this at your own risk as you and me know that cheaters are subjected to persecution by the majority hypocrites.
=http://img35.photobucket.com/... There were assignments due this morning. Although it consists of only 5 questions, it takes me the whole night and yet no be able to finish it. It really makes me wonder how my brain had deteriorated without my notice. Is this an early sign of Alzheimer? I remember when I was a kid in primary school, homework were quantity based. There were only 2 numbers written on the board for homework- "# x til y", and there were at least 3 different subjects per day. Note that homework assignments do not contribute to the final grade. Yet, without any carrots, this dumb ass will grilled his night trying to finish all the homework given. Wow, if not because half of the school (not too bright) kids worked their @$$ off, I should be voted model student of my school.
Those were the days. So now that I am in the college, how would I look at homework and assignments? It was counted towards final grades. So it was rather significance now and I need to deal it with strategy. As an engineering major, I need to see things in a more organized point of view. I need to pay attention to deadlines! Deadlines are important as you would lose a huge chunk of points or even all if it expired. However, the twist is that you need to know how many point it counts towards your final grade. If there were 2 due on Monday, one worth 20% while another was merely 2%, you know what to do and when to party, right? The final grade is very important. I would call it the First Law of Dynamic Workload.
It will help you tremendously in your career. Say you have a sexy babe waiting for you in Cafe Paradisso, and if you dont leave your PC in a sec, she swear to XXX that she wont see your face for a week if you are late. (at least most of the female character in the stories I read would say that). If you go, your work will be left undone and your boss will show you his already long horsy face. What should you do? At the first thought, the deadline is your date, so you definitely cant afford to lose her. Who care about your boss unless you see a potential one night stand with her/him (not being sexual discrimination). Save what is urgent first, aye? NO!!! Organize yourself. What is your final grades ie final goal? If your final goal is to graduate in time, you better go back to your work and later wrap your lab-cultivated giant roses to your date and with excitement, tell her how you are about to lose your head after you accidentally dropped a drop of potassium from paraffin oil into a beaker containing your preciously distilled water. Dont forget to show her your battle scars- a few drops of iodine on the face will do the trick. But if you swear to marry her the next month and tonight is your proposal night, hehe, even idiots know what to do. So, always see what is your final grade. Give preference to the higher percentile issue. Dont try to do everything because you cant!
Did I just mentioned about putting iodine? yup. This skill of part of making up is equally important. (Second Law of Dynamic Workload) See, most of the time, if you can force a cold or fever in a way such that the health centre will give you medical slips, your homework or even exams will be exempted. Other effort will be taken into consideration and a new formula will be derived to give you a proper assessment. Worse come to worse, you could just drop the course and say hi to the professor the following semester. See, you can even drop that course beyond the drop deadline! So, grap every opportunity to visit the beautiful clinical nurse and buy her chocolates the week before you prophesice your own sickness. Let her feel special so that you will be treated special. Of better still, borrow for an indefinitely long period the stamp of the health centre and that stack of medication slips. Dont worry about the signature, anyone can trace a doctor’s handwriting.
Enough of the college theory, and I think I had proven about that making up session in my first statement. You have to realize that 99.99% of the time, they already know what actually was going on. However, once you bring the medical slip, they cant do anything. That is why I suggested some iodine or better still, 5 drops of 22M H2SO4 on different area of your cheap coat. Try to spread some tulcrum powder on your hair also if you want to make it more convincing. Be creative, OK?
So, you have the organization and medication slip taken care of. Another life long lesson we can draw from homework is the efficiency. For engineers, efficiency η (eta) is defined as actual X / ideal X. If you cant finish your work in 2 days, do you think you should give up? NO!! Think first!! See if that homework composed 20% of your grade. (see, the first law of dynamic workload). And of course, if you can always simplified all your issue that bothers you into the second law of dynamic workload- the existence of medical slip… So, if first and second law cant help you, here’s the third consideration which is my third law. It is important that you realize some homework will take months to complete. However, if your fellow coursemates takes equal length of time, then in the name of Dynamic Workload, you better start doing it! In the other hand, if after spending the whole week working on solving a carnot engine equilibrium, and you cant progress to more than drawing the heat reservoir, and only 1 fella in your class could solve it, oh well, what the heck, spend time on other homework. The efficiency defined here therefore is the fraction of total coursemate able to hand in their incomplete assignment on time. The higher the efficiency, the earlier you should start doing your work. However this law does not apply to you if you are that one bastard who can solve that no-one-but-me problem set.
I quote an example of practical application in a research lab. If you see your lab partner's beaker and funnel start changing colors or forming precipitate, and yours still remain dormant and that retarded salt that is supposed to form after you heat it up for 5 hours remain soluble, what can you do? Here I assume that the first and second laws are true. So, you can either speed up your reaction by adding whatever catalyse or tuning up the heater to the warning level. Or, you can suggest and persuade your lab mate to slow down his reaction. Persuade him with all the trouble he has to go through once he’s done with his experiment- he need to collect and organize that data into excel spread sheet, make all zero-error calculations, keep the product and all byproducts in an air sealed environment etc etc etc. Well you are taking a risk here that his ungrateful nature might not heed to your kind words. So, why not skip the first step and jump to the concluding procedure. Go to the main power supply and wait for a mouse to appear. When it appears from the fourth dimension, jump and scream and do whatever when you see a mouse. Just don’t forget the crucial steps of flicking off the main power fuse, throwing your spatula at your lab partner’s beaker. You got the idea. And dont forget the second law, lodge a police report.
So, that’s my 3 laws of Dynamic Homework and their respective applications. And...dang, I gotta get back to my assignments.
Slept at 7, attempted to wake up by 830. It remained as an attempt and a good try. Well, it will not be a good enough excuse of skipping class, will it?
Still, what's so wrong about skipping classes? Apart from your boring professor who have no other way of attracting his student's attention but to make attandence compulsory, I really dont see why is attending lecture remain an important issue, at least when I plan to skip it. Parents (especially mine) keep harping on the fact that I must attend lectures so that I wont miss a thing. Hmm...makes sense when you are smart and well-prepared for your lecture. But what if you are too tired (the perfect excuse) and are bound to sleep in class? or again the power of hypnotic from your instructor is just too strong. Assuming that you are just too tired and YOU KNOW that you will fall asleep in class, would you rather choose to continue your whatever fantasy on bed or you would postphone your climactic ending to the lecture hall and share it with err....200+ other students (and that instructor)
Frankly, I really would choose the former. Who cares about the lecture. As long as you have a nerdy-looking friend who would be too scared to pick a fight with you when you threathen to spread to the world his thumb-sucking habit while sleeping, you would have a nice and wonderful lecture notes. Sometimes, fully attached with side line jokes. Or if your gal/boyfriend is blackmailable, (guy usually have bad handwriting, so...you know who's notebook to borrow) you are safe. Or what not, you take this self-created opportunity to strengthen your whatever bond relationship with your instructor/TAs/professor by visiting their forever vacant booth during their office hour. Who knows he might tip you off with latest exam question or answer for your assignment due the next day. Or for those who are ambitious, this might be your chance of being (in)famous by having a illegitimate student-teacher relationship. (Hmm...what does that have to do with missing lecture notes?)
OK, whichever options you choose, now you have the notes. What about putting slight effort into it? You have that textbook. Online quizes and schedules are posted and announcement are made frequently (hopefully). Sometimes, you even have the lecture notes online (save all the troubles and public relationship) What else, chew and digest them. Sure enough you can make up for your class that you skipped. And the cycle goes on and on...and this magic formula supposed to work perfectly, aye? So, isnt it not that big a deal to skip classes?
However, why so many people failed horribly despite the (sounds) convincing recipe of "what to do if you skip class"? Here is my hypothesis, they didnt realize that such luxuries is not meant for ordinary morons. All the resources are at your fingertips. However, you would have a hard time selecting what to read (you just want to do well in exam only, dont you??). Then you will need time to understand them. Some you might need to chew harder while some you might have overchewed. In the end, like eating tones of junk and your body end up absorbing nothing and you shit a lot. Meanwhile, attending lecture allows you to realize what's the correct technique of chewing. Well, remember that cows would swallow everything into its tummy and then take the cud out (yes, it is that gross) and enjoy the breaking down of cellulose content in it. Skipping classes makes you chew less. The direct consequence of that is, well...headache (you dont stomach-ache before exam, dont you?) So, unless you fell into the genius category that are blessed with constant enlightment, you better consider yourself as a smart(ass).
Apart from the insufficient chewing bullshit, the next possible explanation is that it is just pure life. By enrolling to a prestige college, you should, ideally, read the material assigned, read additional materials, provoke intellectual discussion (not ass licking interaction), and err...provide new insight to a certain field of knowledge? However, with that 4.0/3.0/2.0/1.0/0.0 cast system, it is hard to encourage students strive for the ideal. We can only iterate using the ideal value and produce human resources approximately close to ideal value (Z~1). Imagine a college life where everything is only a Pass Fail grade. It would be fun to see how ambitious students would be and how far they would push themselves. And that curve system? Forget it. You can even fail the whole class if they are not up to your (yes, the instructor's) expectation. Instructor would be "OK, Billy, tell the class what you know about PV=nRT", no more OHP slides or cliche powerpoint presentation. No quizes, no attendence, no homework, no monthly exams. You can even post the syllybus online and have no lectures. Ever wonder why the grad students have so much free time? 1 final exam that would either send them to heaven or hell. No review session and (official) past year paper to refer. OK, that's way off tangent. But think about it. If not because of the 4.0, do you think you would be that hardworking to attend every single lectures? especially those participation based classes? do you really care about the class or just your 4.0? And how many people out there are taking 100 level gen-ed courses and encouraging others to do so? Be honest, I care more about my 4.0 after screwing up my first few semesters in college. So, the system forces you not to skip class. So, wake up, dreamers, this is not that very ideal school that you and me thought of. It is a discriminatory system that promotes hypocrates.
I apologize to the endangered species who really seek knowledge before the 4.0 but how many of you would really spend your quality time reading this low quality bullshit. Sigh, another hypocrite.
