Looking Ahead, Like Gandalf When They Get Jumped by Those Trolls

Originally I was considering my "I'm back" post to be this week's Friday post, but I decided that those sorts of rationalizations were the wrong way to start. And, since the best part of this blog always was always me talking about myself, I thought I'd take some time to talk about my courseload this semester, which I have no doubt everyone will find interesting.

Of course, far less important than the classes themselves are when they are. For instance, do I get to sleep in? Can I escape Friday classes altogether? Did I manage to take all twelve of the necessary credit-hours in the same day, thus giving me a six day weekend? The answer to all of these questions is no. Last semester I could and did sleep until 11:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but had to wake up at 7:30 the other weekdays. And, while I had Friday classes, I had a friend who didn't. (I'm pretty sure the one-day work week is just a wholly fictitious goal, and probably a terrible idea even if it were possible.) This semester, I have a class that meets every day at 9:30, so I'll be waking up at 8:30. Really, this is not too bad. In high school I was waking up at 6:30, and 8:30 means I can go to bed after midnight and still get my eight hours.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: Kinda totally sweet. I've got my 9:30 class, my 10:30 class, and then nothing. (GEE I WONDER IF THIS IS WHY THE NEW BLOG SCHEDULE IS MWF HRRRRM.) The nice thing about putting my free time in afternoons instead of mornings is that I'm more likely to use that time productively. For example, I'd like to actually exercise the way I tell my mom I do sometimes. I'd also like to make blog posts. MWF afternoons, hooray!

Tuesday, Thursday: Oh sweet zombie Jesus on a tandem bike with Feynman's ghost, these days are going to suck. I'll have four classes, but they're all an hour and a half long. They're also all together. That means that from 9:30 to 2:45, I'm in class pretty much continuously, since I'll be using the fifteen minute breaks for walking. You might notice that, in most people's view, a customary time around midday ought to be set aside for, as they say, "eating." I, too, have noticed this problem, and I believe it can best be solved by large doses of Pop-Tarts.

So, that's the purely scheduled part of my schedule. How about the coursework? Actually, I like my courses this year. They look interesting and such. Let's run through the list, shall we?

Calculus & Analytical Geometry IV: Covers line/surface/double/triple integrals and vector calc. I've seen some of the material, but not all of it (Gauss's/Green's Theorem, for instance.) In addition, the stuff I did see was, oh, two years ago? So that could be tough. This one is less exciting but we'll see how it goes.

Beginning Chinese, Continued: I'd really feel much cooler taking this class if it were called Beginning Chinese II. At least I feel like I would have completed something, instead of just being on some sort of hiatus while everyone wonders whether they'll blow up the Borg cube or...right, yeah. I like Chinese, it's an interesting language and pretty different from my other classes.

Physical Mathematics I: Seems to involve mostly differential equations. I really hate hand waves in my physics class, and my modern physics class had to resort to it a few times last semester when we were solving Schrodinger's equation. I'm hoping that this allows me to put a lot of things on a more mathematical footing, and putting things on a mathematical footing is just about the coolest of all things.

Physical Mechanics I: Sup dawg, heard you like putting things on a mathematical footing, so we put more complicated mathematics in your Newtonian mechanics so you can...right, yeah. I should start thinking the entire sentence before I write it. Anyway, this is all kinds of basic mechanics but done in far more detail. As someone who kind of misses those problems, I'm looking forward to it. (Plus, Lagrangians and Hamiltonians and things. Those are important.)

How Computers Work: This semester's wild card. I'm going to be honest, I don't know how this will work out. See, at my school (University of Oklahoma) to graduate with honors you have to take certain honors classes in addition to, well, you can look it up if you care. One of these courses is called "Perspectives on the American Experience", and it is actually just a writing course in disguise which can be about a wide range of things--my girlfriend is taking "American Religion on the Margins", I know someone taking "American Gangsters", etc. Me, I'm taking "How Computers Work." Thing is, it's taught by a CS professor, and thing is, it seems to involve programming. That doesn't really mesh with the rest of the perspectives courses. Programming is a skill I'd like to pick up, so I'm happy to take this. I'd also be happy to take a writing course, as you might be able to tell from my constant apologetic "I LOVE WRITING" comments. In fact, originally I was going to take a course called "American Superheroes," which might just be the most badass thing I can imagine writing essays about. Seriously, I would have no problem going on for pages and pages about Batman. That's probably going to be Monday's post now that I've got it in my head. (I actually nearly wrote my senior term paper over the similarities between The Dark Knight and Heart of Darkness. No lie. I still have the outline I drew up before I decided to stick with Albert Camus.) ANYWAY, I was cruelly prevented from this course of action because the only section of "American Superheroes" was at the same time as the only section of "Physical Mechanics" which is supposedly more important to a physics major. Whatever.