Term 2091

Very quickly, and very briefly, before we get started, I need to stick to tradition and mention that I got a C in Organic Chemistry 2 over the summer, which puts me at a cumulative average of 3.525 on 70 credits; the old concern with the old OChem 1 grade being counted has been resolved.

This fall's classes are as follows:

Class Title and Credit Value
ChE 0300	Transport Phenomena	6 cr.
ChE 0301	Transport Phenomena Laboratory	1 cr.
ChE 1085	Departmental Seminar	0 cr.
ChE 1530	Biochemistry for Engineers	3 cr.
ENGR 0022	Materials Structure and Properties	3 cr.
MUSIC 0311	Introduction to World Music	3 cr.
MUSIC 0612	Heinz Chapel Choir	1 cr.
MUSIC 0630	Marching Band	1 cr.
		18 cr.

Classes begin 25 August 2008; final exams are 8-13 December 2008. No classes 1 September for Labor Day; no classes 13 October for Fall Break, Monday classes instead observed on 14 October; no classes 26-28 November for Thanksgiving Recess.

As you can see, I have nice big open afternoons. I'm not sure what to think of it yet, but I have the feeling it's a good thing, because I can do errands, do homework, do internship searches, or whatever else needs to be done during that time.

I'm still not used to the fact that my ChE courses are at 10:00 and not 08:00 yet, but it means that instead of my friends and I going out for bagels afterwards, we go out for lunch.  Which is a lot of fun.

The only thing I don't particularly like is the ChE 1530 (BioChem) lecture that spans Tuesday nights.  It causes me to miss the last half-hour of choir, miss all of band, and risk missing my meeting for ΜΚΥ in the event that band should let out earlier than normal, which I'm sure will happen on at least one Tuesday between now and November.

Fall break is a bit of a complicated thing, too.  Because we miss a Monday for Labor Day; and we miss a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for Thanksgiving Recess; it makes sense to miss a Tuesday for any Fall Break we might have.

But you can't just call off a random Tuesday, so we're going to call off Monday and then make up the Monday classes on Tuesday in lieu of the Tuesday classes, effectively canceling the Tuesday classes even though we have Monday off.  I am envisioning mass chaos on those days.

All in all, I think that this can and will be a good term.  I'm doing well on forming good habits, although it hasn't even been a week yet, so we'll see how everything holds up once it comes time for midterm exams.

Random tangent: Pitt's Bonfire & Pep Rally is tonight at 20:30; I will be playing there.  And apparently, my grandfather won tickets to tonight's Steelers preseason game and is taking my father.  So that's exciting.

Waiting for College

Granted, it's an experience I've already had for two whole years. But I still can't wait to go back.

But for now, here I am, sitting at my computer in the last half-hour of a month which has, all things considered, been quite good to me. I suppose having neglected this blog for the entirety of June, it would be prudent to write something here before we say goodbye to July. In fact, I've thought this for several days now and have kept putting it off.

So now, I will force myself to try.

Because of the extended hiatus, I'll skip over a lot of the things that my recent posts have set me up to write about, as they're not really at the front of my mind right now. Rather, I'll start with the week I recently spent at Camp Lambec counseling campers at Music Camp from 12 to 19 July.

It may seem odd that I'm starting with camp on my blog, especially because I never have the words to describe my experiences there. It was simply amazing, as always. To think that there is a place so beautiful, peaceful, and full of God's love... it's been quite reassuring throughout the tougher times of my life.

Since words seem to fall short, I'll share what I can through the photographs I took. It is simply breathtaking to hear so many voices singing praises to God and to see so many people doing His work and learning about His Word.

As I've done for the last several years, I plan to manage the camp newsletter this year, periodically reminding the campers that though they were at a spiritual high at camp, God is with them even in the deepest of spiritual valleys.

The rest of my spare time has been easily filled up with projects for pittband.com and Mu Kappa Upsilon. I'm somewhat confident I can tie up all the little loose ends by the time I have to leave.

Which is Thursday 14 August, by the way, just two weeks away. It's kind of scary that I'll be entering my junior year.

My sincerest apologies for not being too comprehensive or comprehensible in this post. I just wanted to get something out there to let my readers know I still care.

June

Apparently, June was rather uninteresting, at least as far as blog fodder goes. See my post of 31 July 2008.

It's BPRD, or is it?

Wow. It's been a whole year since I last celebrated my made-up holiday which had, just prior, been made effectively made useless. There's not much point in remembering lost blog posts when they're autosaved. In fact, this post just autosaved when I paused after writing that last sentence.

I knew something would have to be done with this holiday, and last year, I said that I would "have quite a while to change things around or decide to do away with [the holiday] altogether."

Well, obviously I didn't think too hard about that, now did I?

So here I am, on another 23 May, and I have no blog posts to remember. No Blog Post Remembrance Day. Nothing to celebrate.

Or do I?

At 02:11 EDT today, Randomness logged its 8,000th hit from New Jersey. So I do have something to celebrate! Now, if that isn't the made-up holiday gods looking down on me, I don't know what is.

Now, if I could only get around to telling you all about what's actually going on in my life, other than the fact that I'll be going to Laurel's graduation party on Sunday. I mean, that's exciting. But you probably already know about that. She has her own blog, and besides, half of my readership will be there!

Until next time, have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

Random tangent: I happen to be in a computer lab next to Emily. When I mentioned I didn't know what to write, she suggested, "Pancakes are good. Yum, yum, yum."