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| This will make sense later |
What an interesting couple weeks it's
been. Especially if you consider being repeatedly broadsided by the
unexpected and moderately toxic to be interesting. Because if you do, it’s been absolutely fascinating.
Exploding Integrals
I guess I will start with the most recent development... When
I started writing this, I was on the bus, on the way home from my second
midterm in the calc class from Hell. Unsurprisingly, the midterm was also
a beast: The test itself was only 2 pages long, but as anyone who has taken
calculus knows, integrals have a tendency to really blow up in your face once
you start opening then up. Even if you haven't taken calculus, you've
probably stumbled into a classroom where someone just got done teaching a math
class and seen that and every whiteboard and in the entire room is completely
full of equations and math problems. Well, there's a very good chance
that it was a calc class, and that all of the writing on the boards was
actually just one problem. The test itself was only 2 pages long, but I
filled up 7 and a half additional pages. You know it's a bad sign when
the professor comes to class with a stack of tests in one hand and an unopened
ream of paper in the other.
We'll see how I did on that test. After speaking with some
students after class, I seem to have missed the last problem (which was worth
12% of the grade) and if that's true, I automatically have a B (assuming I
didn't miss anything else anywhere else.) And remember, on the last test
I got all of the answers right and I got a C. So that’s awesome.
Surprise Programming
My microprocessors midterm was an entirely different story; I was
pretty prepared for it because it’s an awesome class and I really don’t mind
doing the reading or homework, so it actually gets done. Furthermore, we had a big project due this
Thursday (the day of the test), which actually made for excellent review. Anyway, Tuesday morning I woke up and really
didn’t feel like going in, especially since we were just reviewing for the
midterm, which I had been studying for all weekend. I decided to do the right thing and go in;
even though it was my only class that day, a little more review wasn’t going to
hurt.
When I strolled into class, I noticed a few odd things… It was very
quiet, the class was unusually full of people, and, oh yeah—EVERYONE WAS TAKING
THE MIDTERM. Because guess what? The
midterm wasn’t on Thursday—it was on Tuesday.
I sat down and took a look at my notes.
Yep, there it is, right on the first page, underlined and in large
letters: “MIDTERM: TUES NOV 8”. So really I have no clue what happened, but at
the time I had larger things to worry about.
Like finishing the midterm with an hour less than everyone else in the
room. The professor allowed anyone who
wanted to come to arrive an hour early to the midterm—an opportunity that
anyone would be crazy to turn down, or forget about.
I’m really glad that the professor for that class taught us the
5-minute rule before I found myself in this situation. If you haven’t heard of it, the 5-minute rule
is a commonly-used tactic in engineering.
Here’s how it works: Lets say
your boss gives you an impossible deadline. Or you show up an hour late into a
midterm you didn’t know was happening.
First, you totally freak out. Flip tables, yell, throw in some of
self-pity or rage; just go crazy. It’s your five minutes and you can spend it
how you like. But after the five minutes
is up, you have to start working. You
can start small, but you have to start.
And even though I’m making a big deal out of this, I do think I did
pretty well. It was very shocking to
walk in on it in progress, but I was pretty prepared. Not to mention it was an open-book/open-notes
test, and ultimately not very hard, especially if you had some programming
under your belt, which I did. As an
added bonus, I looked like a total badass, strolling into class an hour late
like a boss, “Pshh I don’t need the extra time for this bullshit test.”
Formula 409
This is a hard one to start, because drinking stories are just
generally not something you should generally post online under your own
name. But I really think that the
explanation that comes at the end of it is more vindicating than it is
embarrassing, and ultimately, I am just proud of the story. So much for my chances of going into
politics…
We went over to a friend’s house for Halloween this year—They love
Halloween, so they always throw a big party.
They also have a large home, so since there was drinking involved, the
events were likely to go late, and drunk people were likely to be on the road,
a few of the guests (ourselves included) decided to just stay the night. We played charades, had a great time, and
drank a little more than we would have if one of us had to drive home that
night. Or rather, I did. I quite frankly don’t remember so much about
the night. What I do remember, though,
is that the amount of drinking I did was certainly not capable of making me as
violently ill as it actually did. One
moment, I was totally fine. I was a bit
toasty, yes, but certainly not drunk.
The next, I was experiencing their beautiful bathroom from a whole new
level. Then I woke up in bed the next
morning totally fine. No headache, no
hangover, not even that tired.
I was so embarrassed. I’ve
only been sick from drinking two or three other times in my entire life, and I
am pretty sure all of them were in college, so they don’t even count. Everyone who had planned on staying decided
to take off. I’m sure no one would tell
me this because they are all too nice, but I think I pretty much killed the
party. I couldn’t remember anything from
after I started feeling ill. And all of
this at someone’s house, whom – despite the fact that we have become very good
friends and love spending time together—we have really only known for the last
6 months or less.
Fast forward to last weekend.
We are at Life of Riley’s, watching the Ducks with some friends. Not the hosts of the party, but friends that
were there nonetheless. We order a round
of beers and my friend mentions that I must be feeling better. He says something about 409 that I don’t
quite catch, and I stop him. A few other
people have mentioned 409 lately, and every time it was in relation to that
Halloween party. And he explains
everything…
Apparently, towards the end of the night someone spilled a drink on
the carpet. Anyway, it was promptly
spotted and cleaned up using 409. No big deal.
But my cup was right next to the spill, so while the area was being
liberally doused with 409 to keep wine from staining the carpet, my glass was
accumulating a good deal of the spray.
Someone offered to get me another glass and I said not to worry about
it, that a little cleaner wasn’t going to hurt, and I finished my drink before
they could react. Knowing me, I
probably made a joke about it strengthening my immune system. Then shortly after, I ducked into the
bathroom and ended the party. Of course
I don’t remember ANY of this. Everything
in this paragraph is pieced together from what I have learned from the other
guests.
So in the end, it was good to learn that I was merely poisoned by
toxic cleaners, rather than being an out-of-control drunk who vomits in the homes
of new friends. And I got an awesome story
out of it.
Like I said, an interesting couple of weeks.
