Checksum Arcanius

I felt well-prepared for the Statistics final I took today (well, yesterday). I needed every ounce of preparation too. There is a vague possibility that I aced it, but thats only if I got lucky on the educated guesses. You see, the problems weren’t difficult because of hard-to-understand concepts, but because of vague and convoluted wording. At any rate, everyone had to muck through the same thing, and I don’t think I’ll flunk, which is geat news. Props to Alice for helping me so much with my studying.

After that test, my attentions turned towards this morning’s Bioengineering 301 final at 8:30. I have two alarms set, but feel free to call or or come by and knock on my window to make sure I’m up before then. Overall, I don’t think I’ve studied this hard for an group of classes in a long time. I think the last time was probably Fall Semester 2002 at BYU. Good times.

Discrete Stuctures final has come and gone. I feel good about it, but only in that “I tested as well as I could have” way — what I don’t know is how well my probability-calculating skills held up — if well, then I darn near destroyed that test; otherwise, it will be ugly.

Later today, I face off with Statistics. Tomorrow is Bioengineering. Programming Languages on Thursday rounds out the set. Sleep is good too; that comes now.

Wednesday night, I didn’t go to bed; instead I stayed up to finish a Bioengineering lab report — the last one of the quarter. Thursday night, and then Friday morning, I was up late again, this time working with fellow students on the Bioengineering homework due that morning. I felt surprisingly awake even at 2:00 when I dropped the second of my classmates off at her apartment on capital hill. I considered staying up the rest of that night, but chose sleep, feeling confident in my ability to tackle the squeak assignment on Saturday. Wakng up in the early afternoon, I got to work, taking a break only to help clean up the downstairs with the housemates. A few hours ago, I finished the assignment, and I celebrated by playing some Half Life 2: Episode One.

Let me say, so far the game is excellent, and I reccomend it.

Now all I have left is four finals — Discrete Structures, Statistics, Bioengineering, and Programming Languages. None will be particularly easy.

And now, to answer the question in the title; I do, and now is the time.

UPDATE: This morning I talked to Crystal, the lead CSE academic advisor, and she pointed out that I had CSE 451 twice, and that 461 is better during the winter (when it is taught by CSE instead of EE). The question then becomes, what do I fill that 4-credit void in Autumn ’07 with? Perhaps, if I am feeling particularly masochistic, I will take Chem 239 (Organic Chemistry III!)?

Summer 2006 (4)
CSE 326 (4)

Autumn 2006 (15)
BioE 302 (4)
BioE 304 (4)
CSE 378 (4)
CSE 322 (3)

Winter 2007 (17)
BioE 303 (4)
BioE 305 (4)
EE 233 (5)
CSE 461 (4)

Spring 2007 (16)
BioE 357 (4)
BioE 481 (4)
CSE 451 (4)
CSE 466 (4)

Autumn 2007 (16 12)
BioC 405 (3)
CSE 467 (4)
CSE 451 (4)
EE 331 (5)

Winter 2008 (16)
BioE 482 (4)
EE 332 (5)
BioE 470 (4)
BioE 490 (3)

Spring 2008 (17)
BioE 482 (4)
BioE 455 (4)
BioE 457 (4)
CSE 477 (5)

In what was, by far, the easiest registration session I have ever had, I typed in the four classes I wanted, hit “find schedule,” found the first option to be the best, and hit register. Unlike many experiences before, now that I’m actually a declared Bioengineering and Computer Engineering major, everythign worked right the first time. So, without further ado, let the death march begin :-)

A lot has happened since my last real post — not only because my life has been considerably busier than usual, but also because I haven’t made a significant post in quite a while. So, I’m sure to forget something, but here is a synopsis:

– Went on a hike up Mt Teneriffe, near Mt Si, with Dave, Larry, and Tim. Dave, Tim and I summitted (see photos here)
– Took Statistics Midterm
– Went to Atlanta for the 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship (Wednesday-Sunday two weeks ago)
– Talked to police officers while in Atlanta over a misunderstanding about patio usage at a hotel (we happened to be on the patio when someone threw something off, and we apparently got blamed)
– Left Atlanta with no awards, but got to watch some really exciting elimination matches on the Newton field
– Took two midterms my first full day back from Atlanta
– Crashed into a car on my way to work (Monday, one week ago)
– Paid the guy I crashed into for damages
… Guy I crashed into gave me his car (Now we are friends)
– Now I drive that car around
… It has nice cold air conditioning, a radio, and no rear window (my fault) or seats (taken out to carry more stuff by previous owner)
– Got statistics midterm back — 50% (WTF?!)
– Got Bioengineering midterm back — 87%
– Got ML programming assignment back — 20/30 — FACK
– Got ML midterm back — 65/75 — thats about right
– Took Discrete Structures midterm — felt good
– Hiked Rattlesnake Ridge, the long way, with Nick from work
– Won a couple of frisbee games

In CSE 370 (Intro to Digital Design), two assignments stand out as particularly difficult: Homework #4, which took many hours, and the last two labs (which was really just one lab spread out over two weeks) which I spent hours upon hours completing. CSE 341 has now equaled the mental exertion of that last lab in just its third assignment, in the fifth week of classes. Yikes, and woohoo: I am done.