Term 2084 Finals

Okay, let's get this over with.

I know, it's been eons since I've blogged, and I have a ton to write about (not to mention the pictures to post!), but the fact of the matter is that it's a busy time of year here in Collegeland... namely, Finals Week. Here's what's on tap:


As you can clearly see, the reason this post is going to be so gosh-darn short is because I'm frantically trying to get together everything for my ENGCMP 0400 Portfolio, which is due at 12:00 EDT tomorrow.

After that, I have a few phone calls to make and errands to run before the fun studying starts Tuesday night, specifically for ChE 0200 (Thermodynamics). The week is rounded out with CHEM 0310 (Organic Chemistry) and it spills over into Saturday (ugh!) with ENGR 0020 (Statistics).

I don't know what to think about this, aside from the fact that such a back-ended schedule is less than desirable. Thermodynamics is generally regarded as the hardest of these courses by my peers, but I actually haven't been having too much trouble with the style of exams in that course. Statistics has been relatively straightforward... and to top it all off, it's a non-comprehensive exam. Again, the whole course has basically focused on applying principles that I've been using, in some form, since I was ten. Not that I was taught how to use them then... I was just that much of a nerd. See? It can pay off!

So, although I will of course be studying for both of those exams, I'm not very concerned about their outcome.

Organic Chemistry sticks out like a sore thumb. It's not quite the bane of my academic career, but admittedly, it feels like it sometimes. The curriculum is supposed to go through Chapter 13, so what do we do? After sloughing through Chapters 1-8, we covered Chapter 9 in two lectures, ahead of Exam 3 on 11 April. There were two questions on epoxide ring opening on that exam, material that was covered only in the last five minutes of the lecture immediately prior. I'm pretty sure I figured out what to do, but I genuinely feel bad for those who are taking this class the first time around. While that wasn't fair to anybody, it was much less fair to them.

Naturally, the topics of Chapters 10-13 were breezed by in the ensuing week, and we didn't get Exam 3 back in that time, so we don't know what we missed, and thus don't know what to focus more heavily on in studying for the Final. Normally, exam turnback has been within two lectures' time, with a period afterwards to challenge grading errors. This time, though, the idea is that our exams will be checked over so thoroughly that regrades will not be necessary. It's great in theory, but when the mantra all along has been "make sure the students know where they're not understanding things," even at the expense of keeping pace with the curriculum, it comes as a shock to have one-third of the material dumped on the students in the last week while they're kept in the dark about what they missed on the material before that.

I apologize for being so cynical, but on the academic front, my biggest peeve lately is probably how that class has been run.

Anywho, with a portfolio deadline closing in on 12 hours away, I've got lots more writing to do... just not here.

Random tangent: It is really, really hot in my room. Like 77° hot. I might trek to the lobby, or even Hillman Library tonight if this keeps up, because for me, warmth equals sleep, which I can't necessarily afford exactly now. (Don't worry; I'll get some sleep. Just not much.)

Basketball, etc.

It's amazing what fancy Photoshop-type stuff you can still do using just Microsoft Paint.

Pretty much by the time anybody reads this, I will be in the air on my way to Denver, CO for the first- and second-round games of the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship; we're heading to the airport at 14:00 EDT. By the time most of you read this, I'll already be there. And by the time a select few of you read this, I'll already be back in Pittsburgh.

We'll likely stay until Sunday 23 March, except in the unlikely case that Pitt loses their first game.

This is, barring something really weird happening, the only NCAA tournament trip I'll be making this year, as other obligations in Pittsburgh will prevent me from traveling to subsequent rounds.

The men earned a 4 seed and will start the tournament by playing (13) Oral Roberts in Denver, CO on Thursday 20 March at 13:00 MDT (15:00 EDT). The women earned a 6 seed and will play (11) Wyoming in Albuquerque, NM on Saturday 22 March at 14:30 MDT (16:30 EDT). I took my bracket template and made up printable brackets for both these tournaments, so go download them and follow along! They're made to fit 8.5"×14" paper, but will look just as nice (only smaller) if printed on 8.5"×11".

Unfortunately, my departure means I'm missing a lot of class this week. Fortunately, things have been worked out so that even if the Internet isn't free at our hotel (I don't know which one we're at), we will chip in to get it cheaper, and our director Jack may even help us out so that we can continue to send work into Pittsburgh... because it will be necessary.

I'll be keeping everyone posted on happenings in the tournament and my life at my Tournament News page throughout the week, so keep checking there as well for updates.

Things I must remember to do:

• Wednesday 19 March - ENGCMP readings; polish Proposal
  
• Thursday 20 March - ChE 0201 Report due; print remotely to Pittsburgh by 07:30 EDT (05:30 MDT, ugh)
  
• Friday 21 March - Online Housing Selection for 2008-09 at 14:45 EDT (12:45 MDT)
• Saturday 22 March - Work on ENGCMP Interview Portrait
  
• Sunday 23 March - Find a nearby Denver church; potentially attend a really early Easter service before leaving (assuming a Thursday win)
  
• Monday 24 March - OHMIGOSHLAUNDRY!!!!
  

Haha, yes. Seriously, though, that last one must happen, or I die. Figuratively, of course.

In the spirit of the season, I've started up the Pool of Randomness 2008, the successor to last year's Facebook pool that strangely didn't get mentioned on this blog. If you go to the pool, just login to Facebook or sign up and get started! Pick the winners of each of the 32 first-round matchups, then pick the winners of the second-round matchups you've created, and so on to a champion. Brackets are due Thursday 20 March at 11:00 EDT, which I have to remember is 09:00 MDT. Tonight's play-in game between Mt. St. Mary's and Coppin State is not included in the competition.

I'll have a safe trip to Denver, I'm sure! Everyone have a great Easter!

Random tangent: It's my first time flying today. "Excited anxiety" is about all I can call my feelings right now, and by the time I read any of your comments (which would otherwise be filled with advice), it'll be over. I'll be fine.

Intercalation, Quantification, Blast from the Past, and Lofey

You didn't seriously think I was going to let 29 February go unrecognized on this blog, did you? Clearly you don't know me very well.

February is really weird. In non-leap years, it seems so abrupt when the calendar flips from 28 February to 1 March, as though February got gypped. Which is pretty much true. But today, even though 29 days is still shorter than any other month, it just seems like February is unnecessarily "hanging around." I don't know.

I still find these quadrennial intercalary insertions fun, though. And if you think about it, this little "glitch" in the Gregorian calendar is that bad compared to possible alternatives: The Hebrew calendar inserts a month in 7 out of 19 years. Heck, the calendar system I made up has an extra 39-day month every 12 years... it doesn't make my calendar less accurate (although it does drift from the seasons), it's just more inconvenient for a greater number of people and on a grander scale. Can you imagine being born in a month that was only observed duodecennially? Granted, that being said, it is Fimadin 27 Negkamun 8 on my imaginary calendar-I-never-use-but-have-a-computer-program-to-calculate-anyway. And quite frankly, that "date" matches up nicely with the weather outside right about now.

Speaking of which, it's pretty bad, which is why I'm glad that I only had to walk between two buildings today. It was fairly slippery and snowy as I was walking back from my last class, when I saw some kids making snowballs and throwing them over the construction area off the side of Benedum Hall toward the street on the other side. Sadly, I was one of the only people leaving the building at that time, and they quickly saw me as a good target.

But I'm not stupid.

Rather than running away and inevitably slipping on the slush, I kept my amused eye on them until I got to the stairway that would take me from the plaza to the street level, still genuinely interested in their activities, but pretending to be naïve to their plans. But between them and the stairs is a big auditorium building (which won't be there soon), which would give them an opportunity to sneak up on me. So as soon as I rounded the corner, I turned around on the step, and knowing how many steps were in each set (because I'm a nerd), I cautiously and slowly walked backwards down the stairs. And I just laughed when I saw each of them peeking around, hoping I wasn't looking... only to have them see my eyes looking straight at theirs!

Anywho, the nasty weather is preventing the ΜΚΥ camping trip from starting as planned. Instead of leaving for the campground in Farmington, PA this afternoon (in which case I'd already be gone), we are going to someone's house for the evening before making our way to the campground tomorrow morning. I'm sure it will be just as much fun.

But back to leap-yearing and intercalation (which are both fun words). I was fortunate this year that my watch has a "minus" button to page backwards through the numbers, because, as usual, it jumped ahead to read "3/1" at midnight. In the past, this would have meant going through all the months and days to get to "2/29," but it ended up being a quick and painless fix this year.

At least we make an effort to have our years match up to something, though. My made-up calendar has a 362-day year, which is fairly reasonable, and when you add the intercalary month, you get 4383 days in twelve years... exactly the same as we get with the real one. But my high school friend Jaci once made a calendar with six 64-day months... 384 days that continuously fall out of cycle. Similar to mine, it's an imaginary calendar-we-never-use-but-Tim-has-a-program-so-he-can-calculate-it-anyway. And today is Friday 16 Molybdenum 5. Can you tell this concept was designed in Chemistry class?

No, she didn't get uncreative with the days of the week. On her calendar, tomorrow is Tuesday. And the next day will be Tuesday as well. In fact, the week is comprised of seven Tuesdays and a Friday. Today just happens to be special in a coincidental case.

Then there's the calendar my brother decided he wanted to make. It's so convoluted it's not worth explaining, but one should note that it alternates between 5- and 13-day weeks. Anyway, today is Uvuladay 20 Shrub 1.

Yes, he named a day of the week after the uvula. No, I don't know why.

It's quite clear that this is just arbitrary stuff. Certainly on those other "calendars," this would be a normal day. And for the most part, it is. But this day is certainly special to us, even if for arbitrary reasons.

I think it represents a willingness to accept that things won't always delineate themselves cleanly enough to satisfy our scientific drive to "quantify." Really, if you think about it, science boils down to a bunch of empirical equations that mean practically nothing to the casual observer. The reason? Because the quantities expressed by these equations are often so abstract! I think it's amazing that scientists over the years developed a method for quantifying some really crazy concepts. What does 24 kJ of energy feel like? What does it mean to have your entropy increase by 1 J/K? You can't answer these questions... and yet, part of science is being comfortable with the fact that we can only observe the effects of these quantities and not the quantities themselves.

Wow. That was a tangent.

Anyway, I was in my ChE Thermodynamics Lab yesterday, and my group and I were doing some stuff with compressing carbon dioxide at different temperatures to observe a liquid-vapor transition (at normal pressures, it goes straight from solid "dry" ice to vapor). The apparatus was attached to a really old computer which was taking data the whole time ("really old" as in "it was running Windows 98").

When we were done, we had to get the data off the computer for our report that's due next week. Since USB drives aren't plug-and-play on such old machines, I was given one of these things:

Oh, wow. What is that thing? It looks familiar... How does it work? It's so amazing! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "IT ONLY STORES 1.44 MB"?!!!???

Haha. Good thing the data were only 102 kB. So then I had to go to the computer lab and rent a drive for this contraption. Apparently, just like scanners, you can go up to the desk and lend them your ID card, and they'll lend you a drive that plugs into a USB port. So now I actually do have the data on my USB drive (yay!).

I just found that interesting. I mean, I can accurately say that it's been years since I've used one of those things.

And, in other news, let's go back to the land of Silly Animals, a group of imaginary friends my brother and I had during our younger years that sort of fizzled out around 1999. Today is Lofey and Rebecca's second anniversary. Happy anniversary, Lofey! Here's the gift I gave them: It's a photograph of the happy couple, can't you tell?

I just got off the phone with them, and they are doing quite well, as are all of Lofey's siblings, Lofay, Lof-eye, Lofoh, and Lofoo.

Now, I did say that we didn't pay much attention to Silly Animals after 1999, but the wedding date had already been set. Of course, 29 February 2000 was a Tuesday, so that's a bit weird for a wedding, but then again... Did I mention I was a weird kid?

Did I mention I'm also a weird teenager twenty-something? (Granted, that something is zero, but I've heard that nothing is something.)

And now, as if this post weren't incoherent enough, I'm going to attempt to make up for having not posted in almost a month by wrapping up with a random tangent rapid-fire:

1: Apparently, there's an event going on in a lounge in my building tonight entitled, "Happy 5th Leap Year Party!" Excuse me. Many of the sophomores in this building are 20 now, and thus this is their sixth leap year.

2: I bought a new air freshener yesterday, and it's really quite fragrant. Almost excessively so. I don't think any room needs to smell that much like "After the Rain." Then again, who's to say that's what it smells like after the rain? Quite frankly, I usually smell wet socks after the rain. Oh, no! I've been duped by a fragrance-based commercialized lie!

3: Will is celebrating Leap Day by "touching the sky." And if you knew him (or his dorm room's theme song), you'd know why that's annoying. ;)

4: Jen is still singing the "Kenya" song that's been stuck in her head for about a month. In the past, I've yelled at her for not being considerate to the Kenyans in their time of political instability, but in theory, that's all over now.

5: Me? I got a creative burst and started writing a song on 17 February, but it hasn't gone anywhere yet... mainly because I've been too busy. Perhaps today would be a good day to do some work on that... I mean, 29 February has to be good, right?

6: Speaking of good days to do big things, the new Heinz Chapel Choir website that Joanna and I made went online in the wee hours of this morning! Check it out!

7: When I was uploading things to another site, I noticed that my FTP program doesn't like Leap Day. Any time it adds timestamps (and since the one server in on Mountain Time, I tell it to), it just adds the hours, but the way it recalculates the date ignores 29 February in any year. So according to that program, I uploaded some things tomorrow.

8: I'm tired, and this post is long enough. Peace out!

No Asterisk Required.

Yeah, I had actually decided that if the Patriots were to have won, I was Photoshopping in an asterisk, probably bigger than the Patriots' logo itself. Now that's one "Giant" asterisk. (Haha.)

But that is no longer necessary, as they lost. Granted, there was that ridiculously questionable challenge early in the third quarter. Since when can you challenge for a penalty call? The Patriots played just how they have all season... and they finally got their just desserts.

I watched only the second half of the game, and did so in the ninth floor lounge here, as there were a bunch of trumpeters hanging out there, as well as others from nearby floors. Now, to be fair, one of those "others" who was rooting for the Patriots did mention that Plaxico Burress of the Giants specifically left the Steelers after the 2004 season for a team that would get him a Super Bowl victory (and recall the Steelers won the Super Bowl in his absence the next year). So this kid at least justified his rooting for the Patriots as rooting against Burress' ego, even though that logic didn't change the fact that he was outnumbered.

Still, though, in the wake of the Spygate scandal, it is sickening that such corruption seems to actually go rewarded. Many professional athletes are paid hundreds of times more than the highest-paid of those who actually do important things that matter, all while actually upholding their moral standards.

I'm not saying that there weren't genuinely good-natured people playing Sunday, but there are some sore losers, too. After the Patriots' failed to convert a fourth down, their coach Bill Belichick angrily returned to the locker room, even though there was still one second on the clock, and thus a play had to be run. During his post-game interview for TV, he really looked like he didn't want to be there.

If only he would suck it up and lose graciously. He's taken his team to four Super Bowls in the last seven years. Nothing lasts forever. Quit whining.

I really hate being harsh, but I really had strong feelings about this one. Last year, I really couldn't have cared less, having practically ignored the playoffs once the Steelers failed to get in. But because of all the buzz and controversy surrounding the Patriots' potential 19-0 season, I had to take a side. There was no forgetting about football this January.

On a lighter note: Did you notice the red, white, and blue confetti that covered the field after the win? Apparently, the NFL saved money this year because both teams had the same colors, so they didn't have to rig up two sets. Economization for the win!

But cheaters aren't champions. You got what you deserved.

Giants 17, Patriots 14.