Clearly, it has been quite some time (a week, in fact) since I posted. But really, what do I have to post about? I've been getting a string of high Bs in Comp II, but that shouldn't be enough to offset my string of As for the first three months or so of class. I should still end up with an A, and I will be happy. Except not. I have despised most every homework assignment and most every day I have spent in that class. But I shouldn't have to deal with Batts until at least next Spring, and hopefully, I'll have some friends in the class who can lighten the burden. All I have now is this blog.
Now then, on to happier topics. Like this coming weekend. I expect to wake up Saturday a little before noon, go to breakfast at lunchtime, and come back to my room to study. A lot. Then I'll do the whole Saturday night thing (hopefully with Waffle Shoppe this week), go to church Sunday, and study more. Maybe go to the movie, then go to midnight madness Sunday night and get to sleep after that. Then comes Monday. Data Structures final at 8, Bib. Lit. at 9:45, Diff EQ at 12:45, and Comp II at 6. None of these should be too hard, though I'll have to spend most of my free time this weekend and Monday afternoon studying for the various tests. After that, I have Tuesday to study for physics, the test at 8 PM, and then I'm done.
Right. So about those happier topics. They seem to have eluded me. However, because of the four hours of work I put in this afternoon, I seem to be pretty much free this evening. *ducks* Before you get too upset, remember that most of my classes are freshman-sophomore level (you had those once) and therefore require quite a bit less work. Now, stop reading my blog and get back to work.
Indeed, it is time for the wonderful week of Shakespeare. Thus far, I have been to two of the events, though I am quite certain I will go to a third. Indeed, tomorrow our normal play reading is a scheduled event. I'm sure Wheeler has at least some of the cast set, though I don't know how he's going to get that many parts handed out or divided up or whatever. Maybe a bunch of random Shakespeare people will want to come watch Julius Caesar, and they can take part.
Anyway, back to the events of the week. Tuesday night, a large number of us watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a rather post-modern, existentialist look at life using Shakespeare's characters. As always, this play (or movie) provides great fun for the whole... no, not family... group of philosophically aware college students. Though, I still say the ending of the play is better. The scene is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are standing on different parts of the stage, a spotlight on each, no other light, no other characters. Rosencrantz says his piece, as in the movie, ending with, "To tell you the truth, I'm relieved." The spotlight goes out. Guildenstern takes no notice. He continues musing about life for a few lines, realizes it is his fate, and ends with, "Now you see me---" when his spotlight also goes out. I seem to recall the play ending there, but I may be mistaken, as everywhere I look online suggests that the play ends in the last scene of Hamlet, with the ambassador announcing the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It does not end with the Player in the scene, and does not end with them being hanged. On the whole, the ending of the play does a better job of conveying the theme of fate than the movie did, and is much more existentalist than the movie.
Wednesday, Wheeler and I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream with a goodly number of people from the Shakespeare class and other various folk. This was certainly an... interesting rendition of the play, which I'd never seen before. (Sorry, Wheeler, I must have been thinking about Thanksgiving last semester.) Even for Shakespeare, it was bawdy. Certainly body at the end. *cough, cough* Um, so... yeah. On the whole, it was still a great movie, though a greater play. I suppose there are certain things that just couldn't be captured on the stage that they could do on film. The play-within-a-play at the end was marvelously hilarious, as it should be.
I suppose I could be coerced into writing about other proceedings of Shakespeare week, but good luck with that.
From Differential Equations, by Blanchard, Devany, and Hall:
Thus, the solution of the differential equation must be of the form
y(t) = (t^4)/4 + 2 cos(t) + c.
Follow the herd:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Via Wilson.
Ah, I absolutely love HNRS 1023, Creativity: The Death of All Original Thought. So, in an attempt to liven up the class, I decided to bring in one of my favorite things: math. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I made my presentation on Sir Isaac Newton today. Batts hated it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My audience knew I enjoyed it. I don't know why he hated it... *looks innocent*. Oh, wait. That's right. The calculus. Sit back while I relate the story to you.
Well, as luck would have it, I was the first one in the room today, except for Batts, and thus, I was volunteered to go first, not that I cared a whole lot. So I get my presentation ready, everyone else gets their presentations ready, and I get up there and start talking. I introduce Newton and a brief overview of what he did, then I get into the fun stuff. Before I actually explain what the importance of Newton's discoveries, I clearly have to explain Newton's discoveries. So I explain what a "fluxion" is (a derivative), and what a "fluent" is (an integral), and proceed to give examples of each *evil grin*. So I gave them the formula for the First Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, the constant acceleration equations, and drew an example of Newton's method of approximating roots of a function. It was all kinds of fun for me.
But, I finally had to bring myself back to the English classroom and continue with my presentation. So I did. It was certainly not the best presentation I've ever given, but was also not my worst. I was very relaxed (speaking to an audience of five is nice), and really didn't care about the grade. I enjoyed myself.
So, I wrap things up, and Batts decides to give me immediate feedback. He didn't like my intro (it wasn't mysterious enough... or something), I said "and stuff" and trailed off at the end of some sentences, which he wasn't entirely pleased about. And then he said (and this makes the whole thing worth it), "Well, not being a math major, I got a little lost on the math sections." Well, Batts, that was the whole point. He also didn't like that I turned around and used the board, but there's really not much I could have done about that. Then, after Batts makes his critique, Sarah asks to say something. "I loved the math." It was great. Sarah pretty much defended my style for me, so that I didn't have to sound annoyed at Batts, though I wouldn't have done that anyway, because no matter what Wheeler says, the grade isn't that important.
Well, that's all the fun I've had today kids. Until next time, keep your feet on the ground... unless you're jumping up and down. *boinggy boinggy boinggy boinggy*
For those who are not proficient in the absurdity known as l337, the title is supposed to read, "On leet and the evolution of language." It's rather fun reading slashdot on April 1, because of the horrible jokes they have. This year is the best one in my memory (which would be the 'Evil Bit' dupes last year). They've been collecting some of the stupidest posts all year and are just now posting them. In case you hadn't guessed, one is on l337 speak. The submission is reprinted below:
I'm considering naming my first-born child either Br4d or J4n37, depending on gender. My wife isn't too keen on the idea but there's plenty of time left to persuade her. Anyway, it had me wondering whether there are any people out there with real l337 speak given names (or even just a digit in their name). Do you know of any? Other than people saying your dad is a l4m3r, What are the possible pitfalls of having a digit in your name? Is it legal to have a digit in a name? Am I guaranteeing my child becomes a misfit? Am I the misfit?
Clearly, this guy is too geeky even for most people around here. Hopefully. However, in my travels (that would be reading the comments), I ran across more fun pages. (You may want this to help you decipher that last one.)
|_473r, |)00|)5!!!11!!1!