Checksum Arcanius

I don’t usually remember my dreams, but when I woke up today, I remembered a dream, so I thought I’d write it down here…

One part of the dream, I was in some sort of community — a complex of condos, perhaps, and I had either a friend or a family member there (either as a guest or he also lived there). We were in the living room, which was on the ground floor, and some kids from the community had come by to talk. There were three or four of them, and they were pretty nice, and we were enjoying talking to them. Then some bigger, edgier kids came by — like teenagers or something, and starting interrupting and getting in the way of the conversation and all sorts of things. Then I remember one of us saying, next time the cool kids come by, we invite them in so that the big kids don’t interrupt us.

Then after all the kids left, I noticed that I had a new message on my phone. It was a log of the phone seeing a Bluetooth device earlier in the day. The weird thing was that the phone included a small video clip of what I was doing (try on a wool hat) at the time that the Bluetooth device was discovered. I couldn’t figure out where the video was coming from, because it was clearly from outside my body and the phone (which was in my pocket). Someone, perhaps my friend/family member, or perhaps myself, then said that the video was probably coming from a tumor in my brain. We both agreed that that was just freaky.

Also odd is that I think I’ve had that Bluetooth-out-of-body-video dream before. None of the other elements were in there though last time, at least not that I remember. Also, I’ve never turned the Bluetooth in my phone on, so the dream is probably impossible. Well, I guess its impossible for a number of reasons, but there is another.

In a little less than 6 hours, I begin registration for what is officially my last year of undergraduate courses.

Probables: Biochemistry 405 (Intro Biochem), Bioengineering 482 (Capstone), CSE 444 (Databases), and one more CSE class…

I would like to see the Cavs versus the Suns in the finals. The Cavs delivered today, but the Suns, not so much. The game wasn’t as much fun to watch as a normal Suns game either. Curses on the Spurs! I just hope that Phoenix gets its act together and starts having fun out there again.

Yesterday Shai finally got to be as old as me again, and after an interesting dinner, he treated us to Spiderman 3 at Lincoln Square. I actually thought the movie was quite good — maybe a bit formulaic, but it was a formula that worked well. It shared a lot of the character subtleties that made Pirates II compelling, but fortunately lacked the overabundance of darkness of the Pirates offering. And Spiderman offered some legitimate humor, unlike Pirates which played so heavily to the legitimate humor that had been in the first movie, but lacked much if any of its own. I’ll go ahead and give the third Spidey a 4/5.

Something is a little off wrong. I’m not being productive. I’m not caring quite enough about classes or work. I’m missing commitments and I don’t care as much as I should.

Apple Juice
Lotion

I kept hoping that Bioengineering would get better. It hasn’t.

If you are interested in doing bioengineering and you plan to attend the University of Washington, I suggest that you avoid the Bioengineering Department. Instead, pursue a real engineering degree* and then employ those skills towards a biological or medical project towards the end of your studies. This can be done by taking one of the many joint courses with Bioengineering, or by choosing a capstone project that lets you become involved in the field you are really interested in.

The problem with Bioengineering here is not that it is useless (It may be; I really don’t know). Rather, the problem is that it is not engineering. As an example, Bioengineering 481 is the class where soon-to-be-senior bioengineers are supposed to come up with their capstone projects. Almost every student in that class who already has a capstone project figured out (I am not one) basically reformulated a research project into a design project. The result isn’t really engineering. Its just trickily worded scientific research.

Now, I’m all for scientific research, but it is not engineering. The department’s new focus on “design” is due to the upcoming ABET accreditation. I can only imagine that unless the ABET representatives pull some serious wool over their eyes, they will see right through the many “design” projects that are really research in disguise and choose not to accredit the school.

Thank goodness for my second degree.

* real engineering degrees at the University of Washington:
– Computer Engineering
– Electrical Engineering
– Chemical Engineering
– Aeronautical Engineering
– Civil Engineering